In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

The quote distinguishes between principled patriotism and performative patriotism. Twain suggests that genuine patriots—those willing to challenge prevailing opinion at the outset of a political or moral change—are rare because they must endure ridicule, hatred, and social punishment. Once the change succeeds, however, many who were previously fearful or indifferent adopt the label “patriot,” not out of courage but because the risk has vanished and social rewards now attach to the winning side. The point is less about condemning patriotism itself than about exposing how moral courage is tested when a cause is unpopular, and how collective memory often rewrites who “supported it all along.”