Top 45 National Anthem Quotes

I like traditions, and the national anthem is important.

I feel unabashedly Indian, and this means that not just do I jump to my feet and sing along with the national anthem, it also makes me inexplicably sentimental, proud and teary-eyed.

I never went to war, but I served alongside some real heroes and grew deeply loyal to the service of those who fought and died. To me, as you might guess, the United States flag and National Anthem represent solemn reverence to combat veterans, the fallen and their families.

The crudest thing I’ve done as a teacher was to require students to write a national anthem for their country and sing it themselves.

If you know anything about the issues in our country, you know we have a lot of deep-rooted anger and anxieties that spark a lot of passion. When you talk about our national anthem or the flag or race relations or the criminal justice system, it brings up a lot of those fears and insecurities.

Maybe we like our politicians to appear like bumbling oafs. It certainly never did Ronald Reagan or George Bush any harm. The Italians still seem enamoured of Silvio Berlusconi – a man whose entry into a room is less likely to be greeted with the Italian national anthem than by the Benny Hill theme tune.

I got tired of seeing people rush through the national anthem so they could have their popcorn and get to the game. Nobody ever sang the anthem with soul. It was always done clinically and they always stuck to the original. I put feeling into it. I sang it in a soulful manner.

I was the first artist to put the national anthem on the charts, and I’m thrilled.

‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ should’ve never been made into our national anthem. That President Woodrow Wilson, widely thought to be one of the most bigoted presidents ever elected, chose it as our national anthem, is painfully telling as well.

I had a gig in Sweden. There were thousands of people there, and when I launched into ‘I’m Yours,’ they were all singing along. It was as if I was singing the Swedish national anthem. I was stunned.

I feel in my heart it is right to continue to kneel during the national anthem, and I will do whatever I can to be part of the solution.

My dad was the district attorney of New Orleans for about 30 years. And when he opened his campaign headquarters back in the early ’70s, when I was 5 years old, my mother wanted me to play the national anthem. And they got an upright piano on the back of a flatbed truck and I played it.

I believe it’s not 100 percent right to kneel during the national anthem, because you have to respect what many have done for this nation. I think kneeling prior to the anthem, like the Dallas Cowboys have done, is right.

When you come out and know you’re singing the national anthem, it gives you a buzz and gets you lifted for the game.

That first game was so hyped up, and it was obviously my first experience of a crowd in a World Cup. When I first walked out and heard the national anthem, it was just an unreal experience. I didn’t expect a crowd like that.

I personally think our national anthem is not patriotic enough. There is another poem by Dwijendralal Ray called ‘Dhono Dhanne Pushpe Bhora,’ which is more soul-stirring as a national anthem.

I went to see England against Switzerland at Wembley with my dad and brother, too. That was in 2008, Fabio Capello’s first game in charge. Jermaine Jenas scored, and we won 2-1. I remember the national anthem was incredible. I sang it with pride – always do.

When I represent the Under-21s and sing the national anthem, there is no better feeling.

We’re all Vanilla Ice. Look at Girl Talk and Danger Mouse. Look at William Burroughs, whose cut-up books antedate hip hop sampling by decades. Shakespeare remixed passages of Holinshed’s ‘Chronicles’ in ‘Henry VI.’ Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812 Overture’ embeds the French national anthem.

For centuries in this country, black people were seen as three-fifths of a person. So when you hear the national anthem or you see an American flag as an African American person who has experienced the effects of that dehumanizing existence, it’s not going to mean the same.

There was that feeling of standing on the podium and listening to someone else’s national anthem that really sucked.

Standing up for national anthem doesn’t make you an Indian. Posting flags on social networks doesn’t make you an Indian.

Every band wants to be have a song that is that big, that will pretty much live on forever. I don’t know too many new bands that will have a ‘Free Bird’ that will be around 30 years later. It’s become a national anthem of sorts.

I thought, ‘Maybe if I become a cheerleader, I can meet managers or agents. Maybe I can sing the national anthem at a game, and someone in the industry will hear me.’ I saw everything as an opportunity to further my music. I was literally the cheerleader who had a mixtape in between her pom-poms at events.

I didn’t really get sidetracked into being a singer. It was just something I started to do for fun in school, like singing the national anthem.

The thing that I really love to do, that I now only do in the shower, is to sing the national anthem.

To sing the national anthem is wonderful, but it’s far from the sign of a strong team and it is absolutely no indication of a lack of desire to fight.

To me, there’s two symbols for Team U.S.A.: the national anthem and the American flag.

The Olympic Gold medal in 1968 was definitely the highest moment of my career. It was a dream come true. I was a 19-year-old boy, and it was just amazing to be standing on top of the podium and hearing the National Anthem in the background.

You will be pleased to know I stand obediently for the national anthem, though of course I would defend your right to remain seated should you so decide.

There’s a time in everyone’s career where you go, ‘Ah, this is hard – how long am I going to have to do this?’ But the rewards are so great. Who gets to go on the podium and hear the national anthem? The whole nation singing! Money can’t buy you that.

I sang the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium – at a baseball game – which was crazy; there was, like, 60,000 people there, which is a huge deal in America – singing the National Anthem.

Kneeling and gesturing, turning your back on the flag and disrespecting the national anthem is gross, self-indulgent and moronic.

I had lots of breaks. I guess the one that got my foot in the door was singing the National Anthem at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City in ’74.

I’m a part of major league rugby. We had a league meeting to decide what to do with anthem protests, and even though I personally agree with what they say they are protesting as inequality and judicial system and incarceration rates among minorities, we decided all should stand and respect every national anthem.

Saying Kaepernick is a distraction is based largely on opinion. You could say his decision to kneel for the national anthem was detrimental to the team. If that is so, I would hope you’d note that Kaepernick’s teammates gave him the Len Eshmont Award at the end of the season.

Most people have to learn the words to the National Anthem before they sing it. I learned these words when I was a child in elementary school, so this is something that’s been embedded in me ever since I was an adult.

A lot of people get upset by any protest – people taking a knee during the national anthem or raising a fist. As if we’re being disrespectful. Or rude to the national anthem or to our soldiers, you know what I’m saying? It’s deeper than that.

Like everyone else, I can barely take the waves of embarrassment that come with watching someone do something so badly. Roseanne Barr singing the national anthem, Sofia Coppola acting in ‘The Godfather: Part III,’ Sarah Palin talking about Russia – they all create the same level of eyeball-squinching discomfort.

I’ve stood for the national anthem ever since grade school. It’s a patriotic thing for me. I understand what Colin Kaepernick and others are doing, but it’s not for me.

I learned ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ the national anthem. I always wanted to play it before the Bulls game, but I always thought, like, Coach would be like, ‘You’re not focused on the game!’ So I never really asked.

I don’t know if it’s a legacy, but I love it. In my mind and other people’s minds, they know I was the first to stylize the national anthem.

Players have numerous opportunities to express themselves with all the platforms that exist today. So, you know, standing for the national anthem we believe is a part of their responsibility as players in our league.

When athletes take a knee during the National Anthem, we must ignore President Trump’s absurd claim that they’re ‘un-American’ and instead understand that it’s very American to peacefully protest systemic injustice.

Players who take a knee during the national anthem do so to protest injustice across the country – fulfilling a patriotic duty to never accept injustice, but to call it out when we see it.