Flag Stern Staff

Famous quotes containing the words flag, stern and/or staff:

    There’s an enduring American compulsion to be on the side of the angels. Expediency alone has never been an adequate American reason for doing anything. When actions are judged, they go before the bar of God, where Mom and the Flag closely flank His presence.
    Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)

    It was her stern necessity: all things
    Are of one pattern made; bird, beast, and flower,
    Deceive us, seeming to be many things,
    And are but one. Beheld far off, they differ
    As God and devil; bring them to the mind,
    They dull its edge with their monotony.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Each one threw down his staff, and they became snakes; but Aaron’s staff swallowed up theirs.
    Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 7:12.