Flag Quotes

“Raising the flag and singing the anthem are, while somewhat suspicious, not in themselves acts of treason.”
― Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

“The stars and stripes were fluttering bright against the rain, clear blue overhead, and their minds were saying the words before their ears heard them.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie

“Every red stripe in that flag represents the black man's blood that has been shed.”
― Fannie Lou Hamer

“[The main road was] now teeming with people carrying torches, pitchforks, and rakes, and one very confused man who apparently had mistaken the mob for a parade and was marching around with a Swedish flag.”
― Cuthbert Soup, Another Whole Nother Story

“Two things I ask of my God today. That my faith be hoisted high like a kite up in the sky and my fear be buried deeply like a carcass into the soil.”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Daily Drive 365

“That flag is a symbol we attach our emotions to, but it isn't the emotion itself and it isn't the thing we really care about. Sometimes we don't even realize what we really care about, because we get so distracted by the symbols.”
― Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

“Earlier in the morning Company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines had attacked eastward into the ruins of Shuri Castle and had raised the Confederate flag. When we learned that the flag of the Confederacy had been hoisted over the very heart and soul of Japanese resistance, all of us Southerners cheered loudly. The Yankees among us grumbled, and the Westerners didn’t know what to do. Later we learned that the Stars and Stripes that had flown over Guadalcanal were raised over Shuri Castle, a fitting tribute to the men of the 1st Marine Division who had the honor of being first into the Japanese citadel.”
― Eugene B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

“When you set a good example to the world, you become a flag waving on the skies of the entire world!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“A [national] flag has no real significance for peaceful uses.”
― H.G. Wells, The World Of William Clissold: Volume II: v. 2

“Do the people in this country approve of this war?" [...].
"Approve? You don't think we'd lie down and let the damned Thuvians walk all over us? Our status as a world power is at stake!"
"But I mean the people, not the government. The... the people who must fight."
"What's it to them? They're used to mass conscriptions. It's what they're for, my dear fellow! To fight for their country. And let me tell you, there's no better soldier on earth than the Ioti man of the ranks, once he's broken in to taking orders. In peacetime he may spout sentimental pacifism, but the grit's there, underneath. The common soldier hs always been our greatest resource as a nation. It's how we became the leader we are."
"By climbing up on a pile of dead children?" [...].
"No,"[...] "you'll find the soul of the people true as steel, when the country's threatened. A few rabble-rousers in Nio and the mill towns make a big noise between wars, but it's grand to see how people close ranks when the flag's in danger. You're unwilling to believe that, I know. The trouble with Odonianism, [...], is that it's womanish. It simply doesn't include the virile side of life. 'Blood and steel, battle's brightness,' as the old poet says. It doesn't understand courage--love of the flag."
[...] "That may be true, in part. At least, we have no flags.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia

“While I do not advocate burning the flag, I do encourage displaying it upside down as a symbol of a nation in distress.”
― Steven Magee

“We were scorning the symbol of hypocrisy and hope. Many of us had only begun to realize in Africa that the Stars and Stripes was our flag and our only flag, and that knowledge was almost too painful to bear. We could physically return to Africa, find jobs, learn languages, even marry and remain on African soil all our lives, but we were born in the United States and it was the United States which had rejected, enslaved, exploited, then denied us. It was the United States which held the graves of our grandmothers and grandfathers. It was in the United States, under conditions too bizarre to detail, that those same ancestors had worked and dreams of “a better day, by and by.” . . .

I shuddered to think that while we wanted that flag dragged into the mud and sullied beyond repair, we also wanted it pristine, its white stripes, summer cloud white. Watching it wave in the breeze of a distance made us nearly choke with emotion. It lifted us up with its promise and broke our hearts with its denial.”
― Maya Angelou, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes

“Flag up your courage high and your fears will salute it in humility. Your fears are like walls without foundations; they are afraid to go down and hence pretend to be strong! Exercise Courage!”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Daily Drive 365

“Shetani anatisha. Ana macho makubwa manane: macho ya serafi, macho ya mwanadamu, macho ya simba na macho ya tai, na ana mabawa makubwa sita yenye urefu wa futi sita mpaka nane kila moja. Ana rangi ya bluu, bluu iliyoiva, ambayo ni sehemu kubwa ya rangi ya kuzimu, na macho makubwa kama nguva wa Afrika. ‘Mtu’ wa namna hiyo akikwambia njoo nikupige kojoa kwanza ndiyo uende. Kukaa karibu na ‘mtu’ wa namna hiyo ni kujitafutia matatizo makubwa. Kuepukana naye, usiwe mkristo wa Shetani, usiwe mkristo wa kanisa, usiwe mkristo wa dini, kuwa Mkristo wa Yesu Kristo. Kwa maneno mengine, usiwe mkristo wa kufuata bendera, usiwe mkristo wa kinafiki – kuwa Mkristo wa kweli.”
― Enock Maregesi

“O fire, O soul
Give us the spark of God-eternal,
That friend to friend and friend to foe,
One shall we stand before HIM.

And the flame of Jatin,
And the fire of Bhagath,
And the love of the Mahatma in all,
O, lift the flag high,
Lift the flag high,
This is the flag of the Revolution.”
― Raja Rao, Kanthapura

“אני מצלם את התורן העתיק שעליו נתלה בתום מלחמת האזרחים דגל הפסים והכוכבים וביניהם מגן דוד זערורי.”
― Nava Semel, Isra-Isle

“I respectfully kneel to the flag with the National Football League (NFL) players to highlight injustice and corruption in the world.”
― Steven Magee

“After a couple of days, James spotted something strange about the food they were eating.
"It's an odd thing," he remarked to Jumbo, "but every single meal seems to contain at least one dish that's red, green and white. Yesterday it was that wonderful salad- tomatoes, basil and that white mozzarella stuff. Today it was some sort of herby green paste on white pasta, with tomatoes on the side."
Jumbo screwed up his face. "What's so odd about that?"
"They're the colors of the Italian flag."
"So they are." Jumbo thought some more. "Probably a coincidence, though. After all, they eat a lot of tomatoes, so the red's there from the start."
"Probably," James agreed.
But later that afternoon he made an excuse to drop by the kitchen, and peer over Livia's shoulder at what she was preparing for dinner. "What are these?" he asked casually.
"Pomodori ripieni con formaggio caprino ed erba cipollina," she said tersely. "Tomatoes stuffed with goat's cheese and chives."
Ignoring the fact that his mouth was watering, he said, "They're the same colors as your flag."
Livia affected to notice this for the first time. "So they are. How strange."
"As one of the dishes at lunch. In fact, every meal you've cooked us has had something similar.”
― Anthony Capella, The Wedding Officer

“A flag once raised will never fall!”
― Mehmet Emin Resulzade

“There is no flag on Earth that is more beautiful than the flag with only the picture of the Earth on it!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Putting a condom on is like raising your own flag, there is a solemn sensation when it is all erected.”
― Alain Bremond-Torrent, "Darling, it's not only about sex"

“The flag stands for a set of principles, not the lack of adherence to them.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“The flag stands for the vision cast and the blood spilt by those who hoped (against all hope) that we would be swept up by both and stand fast against anything that would attack either.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“I don't have any allegiance to any single flag, but still I cannot disrespect them either with words or with action, you know why, because a flag represents a people, therefore disrespecting a flag means disrespecting a people. Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a great leader in one of the countries of planet earth. The military of a neighboring country had taken over a region there, but accompanied by his brave soldiers the great leader liberated that part of his country from oppression. In celebration when the people of his country laid down the flag of the oppressor for their leader to walk on, he refused - he refused to insult even the flag of an invading country, for such is the character of a true leader. Leaders don't insult others to feel superior - they simply live as an epitome of courage, conscience and humility, and others can't help but follow on their own.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Martyr Meets World: To Solve The Hard Problem of Inhumanity

“Money doesn’t carry a flag.”
― Jeff Arch, Attachments

“I am a lovenut, not a flagnut.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Earthquakin' Egalitarian: I Die Everyday So Your Children Can Live

“The fact of the matter is that our country seldom counts all who
Matter. This is why red seeps from our flag.”
― Amanda Gorman, Call Us What We Carry

“A nauseating display of statist brainwashing anywhere, Independence Day is especially trying on my small island. The entire landmass is littered with flag-waving tourists from North, South, East and West Jesus so unaware their country is a democracy in name only they wouldn’t know freedom if it bit them on their star-spangled asses.”
― Sol Luckman, Musings from a Small Island: Everything under the Sun

“The funerals of veterans and soldiers, more than any other ceremony, have followed an age-old pattern of the living honoring the dead.”
― Benjamin A. Saunders

“Many symbols used at a funeral are designed to help those grieving understand the great mystery surrounding death and encourage them to reform their lives so that they can join their relative or friend in the heavenly embrace of God.”
― Benjamin A. Saunders