Laudator Temporis Acti

Cicero, On the Orator 1.44.196 (tr. E.W. Sutton and H. Rackham):

And if our own native land is our joy, as to the uttermost it ought to be,—a sentiment of such strength and quality that a hero of consummate prudence gave preference over immortality to 'that Ithaca of his, lodged like a tiny nest upon the roughest of small crags,'—with love how ardent must we surely be fired for a country such as ours, standing alone among all lands. as the home of excellence, imperial power and good report! It is her spirit, customs and constitution that we are bound first to learn, both because she is the motherland of all of us, and because we must needs hold that wisdom as perfect went to the establishment of her laws, as to the acquisition of the vast might of her empire.

ac, si nos, id quod maxime debet, nostra patria delectat; cuius rei tanta est vis, ac tanta natura, ut 'Ithacam illam in asperrimis saxulis, tanquam nidulum, affixam,' sapientissimus vir immortalitati anteponeret; quo amore tandem inflammati esse debemus in eiusmodi patriam, quae una in omnibus terris domus est virtutis, imperii, dignitatis! cuius primum nobis mens, mos, disciplina, nota esse debet; vel quia est patria, parens omnium nostrum, vel quia tanta sapientia fuisse in iure constituendo putanda est, quanta fuit in his tantis opibus imperii comparandis.

A.S. Wilkins ad loc.: