"national ethos" is a perfectly acceptable phrase to use in written English.
It can mean a set of shared values, beliefs, and attitudes that characterize a group or nation. For example, you could say, "The national ethos of Japan emphasizes diligence and respect for authority."
Even if there is an overarching national ethos that the nation-state has concocted around the idea of shared tribal ideals, in practice, tribes and clans are customarily suspicious of and in competition with one another.
Our immigration policy runs counter to our national ethos of civil and human rights.
The following sections veer into more pensive, probing territory, as Kalman ponders the essence and origins of our national ethos.
He was silent for a moment and then laughed in embarrassment, as if the national ethos were a personal failing.
The Shalits were embraced as the Israeli everyfamily, giving human form to the deeply ingrained national ethos to never abandon a soldier in the field.
That national ethos, the Haitians' ability to scrounge to find enough to fight their hunger pangs, is being tested in full by the current crisis.
It's high time to define a new national security ethos.
Fewer swords, smaller shields, and more belief in our own democratic virtues and values: that's what I'd like to see as our new national security ethos.
Even in America, where philanthropy has played a huge role in building national collections, the ethos is against charging.
Their ethos of national liberation was based on the idea that all refugees would be able to return to their homes in Jaffa, Ramle and Lod.
When it disbanded in 1945, a firmly entrenched ethos of national service existed at the Institute, as did the infrastructure to support future government research.
