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A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design that is used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or as decoration.
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- FLAG, n. A colored rag borne above troops and hoisted on forts and ships. It appears to serve the same purpose as certain signs that one sees and vacant lots in London -- "Rubbish may be shot here."
- Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
- Each flag will have its own particular symbols like the chakra-dhavaja, or wheel, in the Indian flag, or the Protestant orange and Catholic green in the flag of Eire. Even as a flag indicates particularity, with its own particularity, with its own individual patterns (whether the Stars and Stripes, the Union Jack, the Tricolor or whatever), it also flags its own universality. Each flag, by its conventional rectangular pattern, announces itself to be an element of an established, recognizable series, in which all the flags are essentially similar in their conventions of difference. The odd exception, like the pennant-shaped flag of Nepal, only serves to confirm the general rule. New nations, in designing their flags, tend to follow heraldic convention of colour as well as shape: they avoid certain shades like shocking pink and kingfisher blue (Firth, 1973). The hoisting of the newly designed flag indicates that another nation has joined the club of nations: 'we' have become like 'you' (no longer 'them'); 'we' are all nations, with 'our' flags and 'our' anthems, 'our' seats in the United Nations, and 'our' participation, with appropriately designed vests at Olympic Games and World Cups.
- Michael Billig, Banal Nationalism (1995), p. 86
- The flag is the symbol of the nation's unity, for it, beyond any doubt, represents all the citizens...
- Maurice Bourget, as quoted in "The National Flag of Canada; A symbol of Canadian Identity" (2007), Department of Canadian Heritage
- Shoot down the Confederacy and uphold the flag...
- Frederick Douglass, "What the Black Man Wants", speech in Boston, Massachusetts (1865)
- The flag, like the cross, is sacred. ... The rules and regulations relative to human attitude toward national standards use strong, expressive words, as, "Service to the Flag," ... "Reverence for the Flag," "Devotion to the Flag."
- Encyclopedia Americana (1942), Volume 11, p. 316
- Rally round the flag, boys—
Give it to the breeze!
That's the banner that we bore
On the land and seas.
Brave hearts are under it,
Let the traitors brag,
Gallant lads, fire away!
And fight for the flag.
Their flag is but a rag—
Ours is the true one;
Up with the Stars and Stripes!
with the new one!
Let our colors fly, boys—
Guard them day and night;
For victory is liberty,
And God will bless the right.- James Thomas Fields, "The Stars and Stripes"; reported in Florence Adams and Elizabeth McCarrick, Highdays & Holidays (1927), pp. 182–83.
- We often dismiss controversies or concerns by waving our hands and saying something like, “Oh, that’s merely symbolic,” as if the meaning we give to symbols is somehow irrelevant compared with more tangible things. But symbolism — the way we reduce broad concerns, agendas, and visions to images or rituals — has played a defining role in human life since there have been humans. Try burning a flag or a cross in front of the wrong audience and then tell me symbolism is nothing.
- Jonah Goldberg, "The Border Wall Is a Symbol of Our Symbolic Politics" (28 December 2018), National Review
- Both flag burners and flag wavers can agree on one thing: The flag has meaning beyond the merely instrumental necessity of having a piece of cloth that identifies a legal jurisdiction.
- Jonah Goldberg, "The Power of Symbols in Our Politics of Digust" (28 December 2018), National Review
- With a soldier the flag is paramount.
- Ulysses S. Grant, as quoted in Around the world with General Grant: a narrative of the visit of General U. S. Grant, ex-President of the United States, to various countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in 1877, 1878, 1879 : to which are added certain conversations with General Grant on questions connected with American politics and history (1879), by John Russell Young, p. 448
- The flag still stands for freedom, and they can't take that away!
- A moth-eaten rag on a worm-eaten pole,
It does not look likely to stir a man's Soul,
'Tis the deeds that were done 'neath the moth-eaten rag,
When the pole was a staff, and the rag was a flag.- Sir Sir Edward Hamley on seeing some old Colours of the 32nd Foot in Monmouth Church.
- "Regimental Colours, Banners, and Flags Past and Present", in the regimental website of the Lincoln and Wetland Regiment. Accessed 09 September 2010.
- China believes it is the center of the universe? Look at its flag: one big star surrounded by satellite stars. Arrogant!
- Nguyen Khanh, as quoted in "A Bag of Earth, A Promise To Keep" (28 April 2005), Viet Weekly, by Mike Nally.
- Under the sooty flag of Acheron,
Harpies and Hydras.- John Milton, Comus (1637), line 604.
- The imperial ensign; which, full high advanced,
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind.- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book I, line 536.
- Under spreading ensigns moving nigh, in slow
But firm battalion.- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book VI, line 533
- When the average man sees the flag, he feels fraternity.
- Brian Reynolds Myers, "North Korea's Unification Drive" (21 December 2017), Sthele Press
- Your flag and my flag,
And how it flies to-day
In your land and my land
And half a world away!
Rose-red and blood-red
The stripes for ever gleam;
Snow-white and soul-white—
The good forefathers' dream;
Sky-blue and true-blue, with stars to gleam aright—
The gloried guidon of the day; a shelter through the night.- Wilbur D. Nesbit, "A Song for Flag Day", in The Trail to Boyland (1904), p. 96, stanza 1.
- I have never seen anyone burn a flag. And if I did, it would take every ounce of restraint I had not to haul off and hit them.
- Barack Obama, as quoted in "The Constitution, Designed to Change, Rarely Does" (4 December 2008), by Jennifer S. Forsyth, The Wall Street Journal
- Oh citizens! Hasten to offer yourselves under the flag! Oh citizens! Hasten to defend this land.
- Lưu Hữu Phước, "Thanh niên hành khúc"
- Original Vietnamese: Công Dân ơi! Mau hiến thân dưới cờ! Công Dân ơi! Mau làm cho cõi bờ.
- Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.
- Arundhati Roy, Come September (29 Sep 2002)
- A garish flag,
To be the aim of every dangerous shot.- William Shakespeare, Richard III (c. 1591), Act IV, scene 4, line 89.
- This token serveth for a flag of truce
Betwixt ourselves and our followers.- William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part I (c. 1588-90), Act III, scene 1, line 138.
A few months after Mandela’s inauguration, I was rummaging for second-hand furniture at a pawn shop in Ontdekkers Road. I bought a rickety coffee table that I still have, and a few other bits and pieces. I needed to get them home, but I had no trailer, and no roof rack. The pawn broker went inside and returned with a tatty old South African flag to protect my car’s roof when we tied the furniture to the top.
It was startlingly absurd. That flag, which I had once been taught to revere above all else, was being given away by a pawn broker. That flag, which must never touch the ground, was reduced to packing material.
That this flag no longer held any value could not have been demonstrated more eloquently. Even to burn it would have given it back some of its significance, because you cannot desecrate something that means nothing.
- Ivo Vegter, "My old South African flag" (10 December 2013), Daily Maverick
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
- Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 274-75.
- Uncover when the flag goes by, boys,
'Tis freedom's starry banner that you greet,
Flag famed in song and story
Long may it wave, old glory
The flag that has never known defeat.- Charles L. Benjamin and George D. Sutton, The Flag That Has Never Known Defeat.
- Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by.- Henry H. Bennett, The Flag Goes By.
- United States, your banner wears
Two emblems—one of fame;
Alas! the other that it bears
Reminds us of your shame.
Your banner's constellation types
White freedom with its stars,
But what's the meaning of the stripes?
They mean your negroes' scars.- Thomas Campbell, To the United States of North America (1838). (See also Lunt for answer to same).
- The meteor flag of England.
- Thomas Campbell, Ye Mariners of England.
- Ye mariners of England!
That guard our native seas;
Whose flag has braved a thousand years,
The battle and the breeze!- Thomas Campbell, Ye Mariners of England.
- Fling out, fling out, with cheer and shout,
To all the winds Our Country's Banner!
Be every bar, and every star,
Displayed in full and glorious manner!
Blow, zephyrs, blow, keep the dear ensign flying!
Blow, zephyrs, sweetly mournful, sighing, sighing, sighing!- Abraham Coles, The Microcosm and other Poems, p. 191.
- If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.
- John A. Dix, Speeches and Addresses, Volume II, p. 440. An Official Dispatch. Jan. 29, 1861.
- When Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there.- Joseph Rodman Drake, The Croakers, The American Flag, Stanza 1.
- Flag of the free heart's hope and home!
By angel hands to valour given,
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome;
And all thy hues were born in heaven.- Joseph Rodman Drake, The Croakers, The American Flag, Stanza 5.
- A moth-eaten rag on a worm-eaten pole,
It does not look likely to stir a man's soul.
'Tis the deeds that were done 'neath the moth-eaten rag,
When the pole was a staff, and the rag was a flag.- Gen. Sir Edward Hamley, referring to the Colors of the 43rd Monmouth Light Infantry.
- Ay, tear her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky.- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., A Metrical Essay.
- Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the God of storms,
The lightning and the gale.- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., A Metrical Essay.
- Oh! say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming;
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there! - CHORUS
Oh! say, does that star spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!- Francis Scott Key, Star-Spangled Banner. "To Anacreon in heaven, where he sat in full glee, / A few Sons of Harmony sent a petition, \ That he their inspirer and patron would be." Ralph Tomlinson—To Anacreon in Heaven. Music by John Stafford Smith. Tune of The Star-Spangled Banner (between 1770 and 1775) to which F. S. Key set his words.
- Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must when our cause it is just.
And this be our motto, "In God is our trust!"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.- Francis Scott Key, Star-Spangled Banner.
- What is the flag of England? Ye have but my breath to dare,
Ye have but my waves to conquer. Go forth, for it is there.- Rudyard Kipling, The English Flag.
- England! Whence came each glowing hue
That tints your flag of meteor light,—
The streaming red, the deeper blue,
Crossed with the moonbeams' pearly white?
The blood, the bruise—the blue, the red—
Let Asia's groaning millions speak;
The white it tells of colour fled
From starving Erin's pallid cheek.- George Lunt, answer to Campbell, in Newburyport News (Massachusetts).
- The dream grows waving in the flag and goes cultivating in the certainty of tomorrow
- Salomão J. Manhiça, "Pátria Amada" (2002), the national anthem of Mozambique
- Original Portuguese: Cresce o sonho ondulando na bandeira. E vai lavrando na certeza do amanhã.
- Bastard Freedom waves
Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves.- Thomas Moore, To the Lord Viscount Forbes
- "A song for our banner?"—The watchword recall
Which gave the Republic her station;
"United we stand—divided we fall!"
It made and preserves us a nation!- George P. Morris, The Flag of Our Union. Probably inspired by Dickinson.
- The flag of our Union forever!
- George P. Morris, The Flag of Our Union.
- Your flag and my flag,
And how it flies today
In your land and my land
And half a world away!
Rose-red and blood-red
The stripes forever gleam;
Snow-white and soul-white—
The good forefathers' dream;
Sky-blue and true-blue, with stars to gleam aright—
The gloried guidon of the day, a shelter through the night.- Wilbur D. Nesbit, Your Flag and My Flag.
- This is the song of the wind as it came,
Tossing the flags of the Nations to flame.- Alfred Noyes, Avenue of the Allies.
- Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle-cry of Freedom,
We will rally from the hill-side, we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle-cry of Freedom.- George F. Root, Battle-Cry of Freedom.
- She's up there—Old Glory—where lightnings are sped,
She dazzles the nations with ripples of red,
And she'll wave for us living, or droop o'er us dead—
The flag of our country forever.- Frank L. Stanton, Our Flag Forever.
- The person who holds the flag determines what is written on it.
- Ivan Sukhov, "Why Russian Apathy Is Worrisome" (15 July 2015), by I. Sukhov, The Moscow Times.
- Banner of England, not for a season,
O Banner of Britain, hast thou
Floated in conquering battle or flapt to the battle-cry!
Never with mightier glory, than when we had rear'd thee on high,
Flying at top of the roofs in the ghastly siege of Lucknow—
Shot thro' the staff or the halyard, but ever we raised thee anew,
And ever upon the topmost roof our banner of England blew.- Alfred Tennyson, The Defence of Lucknow.
- Might his last glance behold the glorious ensign of the Republic still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in all their original lustre.
- Noah Webster, Peroration of the reply to Hayne.
- "Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.- John Greenleaf Whittier, Barbara Frietchie.
- A star for every State, and a State for every star.
- Robert C. Winthrop, address on Boston Common (1862).
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