We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents. – Justice William J. Brennan, for the Majority US Supreme Court Decision, 3 July 1

There is not a thread in it but scorns self-indulgence, weakness and rapacity. – Charles Evans Hughes

We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity, representing our liberty. – George Washington, attributed

Our flag means all that our fathers meant in the Revolutionary War. It means all that the Declaration of Independence meant. It means justice. It means liberty. It means happiness…. Every color means liberty. Every thread means liberty. Every star and stripe means liberty. – Henry Ward Beecher