There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

I love tattoos. And mine symbolise who I really am. I have a Samurai on my left arm. At a subconscious level, I connect to this warrior and model myself on his discipline, skills and honour. There is also a tribal tattoo and a Chinese symbol of faith. I have seen a lot of people getting tattoos just because it’s a trend.

Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.

Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it.

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.

All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?

The American people are bigger than any president. I suppose I have faith in my country and in what it is founded on and the values we hold dear.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.

I do know this… I seem to reach a lot of previously unchurched people. So many people have told me they never went to church until they heard our message of hope that God is a good God who desires to bless those who are faithful and obedient to Him through Jesus Christ.

He who has faith has… an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness, and assuring trust that all will come out well – even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly.

I have a personal ambition to live my life honestly and honor the true love that I’ve had and also the people I’ve had around me. I want to stay hopeful, even though I get scared about why we’re even alive at all.

I carry the flag of Ireland all the time. I want to represent my country.

While there’s life, there’s hope.

Our human compassion binds us the one to the other – not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.

When my dad founded our church, he used either a globe or a map of the world behind him. It was symbolic of what Christ said: to go forth and preach hope to the world. We believe in the cross, but we just continued with the globe.

Each nation feels superior to other nations. That breeds patriotism – and wars.

If you don’t know how great this country is, I know someone who does; Russia.

To me, we’re marketing hope.

You’re born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there’s a loophole.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

There is no room for military people, including our veterans, to see themselves as victims, even if so many of our countrymen are prone to relish that role.

What were once only hopes for the future have now come to pass; it is almost exactly 13 years since the overwhelming majority of people in Ireland and Northern Ireland voted in favour of the agreement signed on Good Friday 1998, paving the way for Northern Ireland to become the exciting and inspirational place that it is today.

I haven’t had that one great love, which is good. I don’t want that to be in the past – I want it to be in the future.

The unyielding resistance of the Cuban patriots is symbolized by our 5 Heroes. They shall never back down! They shall never surrender!

I’d read up on the history of our country and I’d become fascinated with the story of the Alamo. To me it represented the fight for freedom, not just in America, but in all countries.

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

Ritual is another word for fear, manifested in a different way.

Even if my songs are quite sad or quite dark, I don’t want my songs to make people sad. It’s very important for me that all my songs have some kind of hope or light.

Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.

The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.

Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.

Youth is to all the glad season of life; but often only by what it hopes, not by what it attains, or what it escapes.

Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.

You accept that this civilisation could be abolished and life will begin later on after a few thousand years because that is something that has happened in the history of this planet. When you have peace in yourself and accept, then you are calm enough to do something, but if you are carried by despair there is no hope.

Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.

Where liberty is, there is my country.

As long as the people don’t fear the truth, there is hope. For once they fear it, the one who tells it doesn’t stand a chance. And today, truth is still beautiful… but so frightening.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president I must put the interests of America first Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

It is justice and respect that I want the world to dust off and put – without delay, and with tenderness – back on the head of the Palestinian child. It will be imperfect justice and respect because the injustice and disrespect have been so severe. But I believe we are right to try.

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

To our brothers in Latin America and the world, we must convey that the Cuban people will overcome.

There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.

I never expected any sort of success with ‚Mockingbird’… I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement.

War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.

The reason why I wear gold – I wear gold for three reasons. One, when Jesus was born, three wise men came from the east: one brought frankincense, one brought myrrh, the other one brought gold. The second reason I wear gold is I can afford it. The third reason I wear it, it’s symbolic of my African heritage.

We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.

I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a guy nailed to two pieces of wood.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

America is the land of the second chance – and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.

I think that everybody needs four things in life. Everybody needs something to do regardless of age. Everybody needs someone to love. Everybody needs something to hope for, and, of course, everybody needs someone to believe in.

Man’s only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

It is only by not paying one’s bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.

True patriotism is better than the wrong kind of piety.