Michael Franti Quotes

Better the pride that resides as a citizen of the world than a pride that divides when a colorful rag is unfurled

Show me the race or nation without a flag, and I will show you a people without any pride.

I love Scotland and I speak about it a lot, so people think I'm desperate to go back. They just take it upon themselves to say I'm going back, but I'm not. I'd rather concentrate on becoming a citizen of the world.

A Country is not a mere territory; the particular territory is only its foundation. The Country is the idea which rises upon that foundation; it is the sentiment of love, the sense of fellowship which binds together all the sons of that territory.

Jack doesn't belong anymore to just a family. He belongs to the country.

The flag is the guarantor and symbol of equality.

The more I am French, the more I feel a part of humanity.

Something has been lost, a special feeling of patriotism, of belonging, is vanishing.

And if that child should ever get the chance to travel the world and someone should ask her where is she from, we believe that she should always be able to hold her head high with pride in her voice when she answers, "I am an American." That is the course we seek. That is the change we are calling for.

Nationalism cannot flower if it does not grow in the garden of internationalism.

I have a great belief in the future of my people and my country.

I am not the flag: not at all. I am but its shadow.

Citizenship rights is about making all Iranians feel they are part of one nation, one identity, under one umbrella they can feel proud of.

North Americans don't understand... that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity.

Reagan was all about America, and you talked about it. Obama is, 'We are above that now. We're not just parochial, we're not just chauvinistic, we're not just provincial. We stand for something.' I mean, in a way, Obama's standing above the country, above - above the world. He's sort of God. He's going to bring all different sides together.

The Jews know who they are as a people. The Christians have not come together as a people yet.

The homeland affects you directly: it affects your body; it affects the collective mind and the collective heart and the collective spirit.

It's a complicated issue, but I define myself as an American, primarily.

I've never felt British. I'm just not interested in national identity. I don't know why.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

One can not be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work.

There's a civic nationalism in Britain and dozens of other countries.

Whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic or the Pacific or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, or what our last names are, or how we worship.

I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth, and I am a citizen of the world.

I'm an American first, and I think that's how most people are.