Famous quotes containing the words blue, ensign and/or flag:
“...the shiny-cheeked merchant bankers from London with eighties striped blue ties and white collars and double-barreled names and double chins and double-breasted suits, who said ears when they meant yes and hice when they meant house and school when they meant Eton...”
—John le Carré (b. 1931)
“How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry! which their keepers call
A lightning before death: O, how may I
Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!
Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquered; beautys ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And deaths pale flag is not advanced there.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)
“Theres 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)