I thought that there was more to the Stephen Decatur quote, but there wasn't. Instead, I found

"That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge [Senator Stephen] Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles—right and wrong—throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it.""

                                 --Abraham Lincoln,seventh and last
                                 debate with Stephen A. Douglas,                                                
                                 Oct. 15, 1858.

This seems to be as true today as ever before, whether the government is a dictatorship, theocracy, democracy, republic, or monarchy. The "patriot" who waves the flag but is not willing to put life, liberty, wealth, sacred honor -- everything -- on the line for whatever they profess to believe in can't be much of a patriot.

"He either fears his fate too much/Or his desserts are small/Who does not put it to the touch/To gain or lose it all."