"I'd rather have my country die for me" is undoubtedly an anti-war statement and a reference to John F. Kennedy's "Ask not ... ", but also probably a reference to Stephen's declaration from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:
“I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it calls itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use -- silence, exile, and cunning.”
It's Stephen (Daedalus) not Steven.
"I'd rather have my country die for me" is undoubtedly an anti-war statement and a reference to John F. Kennedy's "Ask not ... ", but also probably a reference to Stephen's declaration from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:
“I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it calls itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defense the only arms I allow myself to use -- silence, exile, and cunning.”