National Symbols Quotes

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Show me the race or nation without a flag, and I will show you a people without any pride.

Patriotism, love of country, and pride in the flag which symbolizes country may be feelings which the race will at some period outgrow, but at present they are very real and strong, and the man who lacks them is a useless creature, a mere encumbrance to the land.

Like every Canadian, I have been taught that one of the most important functions of art is to supply and elaborate the myths and narratives of nationhood.

A national spirit is necessary for national existence. A flag is a material aid to the development of such a spirit.

I also wish that the Pledge of Allegiance were directed at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as it is when the President takes his oath of office, rather than to the flag and the nation

We have an American religion; we do believe in a lot of things together.

Flag desecration is not a constitutional issue for the courts. It is a political one that belongs to the people.

Three-quarters of the flags, borders and anthems sitting at the U.N. today were not there 60 some-odd years ago.

The nation, like the church, has its visible symbols and insignia, its parchments engrossed with the revealed word, its dogmas, hymns, liturgy, holy day celebrations, its early Fathers, prophets and martyrs, its priesthood and its lay sodality, its myths of sacred genesis and apocalyptic crises, its world-saving mission and its missionaries.

We have no national temples but the Capitol; we consult no common oracle but the Constitution.

A nation is a work of art and a work of time.

From the U.S. Capitol Building to the White House, our national symbols that represent freedom to so many of us, were built by people who were anything but free.

Nationality is belief in a common origin and end.

Where new states have come into being, they have invariably swaddled themselves in sacred symbols and shibboleths forged in more dedicated struggles, beginning with an often random tricolor and a national anthem.

Countries under foreign command quickly forget their history, their past, their tradition, their national symbols, their way of living, often their own literary language.

I was sure we would never see the adoption of the Euro. Countries giving up their currencies for a common tender was, it seemed to me, completely out of tune with currency being a carrier of people's cultural identity, celebrating national heroes and events, as it had been for hundreds of years.

And my father, after all, was a nationalist.

There's something I will say: In the U.S., people are very patriotic. Their patriotism is obvious. In France, for many years, you had to fight to be patriotic. People are pushing us from loving our own country.

I'm not afraid to make a patriotic speech. There should be more of them.

There's a civic nationalism in Britain and dozens of other countries.

Burn the flag; that's a freedom. Then I have the freedom to take it away from them and tell them how dumb they are.

National identity does not figure in the Tamil way of thinking.

My commitment to the Republican movement was pure and simply patriotism, a love of Australia... a desire or passion that all of our national symbols should be unequivocally and unambiguously Australian.

A nation's life is about as long as its reverential memory.