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Civilians are only morally bound to salute our flag. We are legally bound. All Americans are morally bound to die for our flag, if called upon. Only we are legally bound. Only we live our lives in a day to day readiness for that sacrifice.

— Richard McKenna The Sand Pebbles (1962)

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More quotes by Richard McKenna

America is a living structure of human lives, of all the American lives that ever were and ever will be.

The Sand Pebbles (1962)

And so the pattern lives and it can manifest itself in any number of bits of perishable cloth, but the pattern is indestructible.

The Sand Pebbles (1962)

We're mixing our lives together, Maily, and we'll never be able to unmix them again, and we'll never want to.

The Sand Pebbles (1962)

I take you for what you are, and all that you are, and mix you with all of me, and I don't hold back nothing.

The Sand Pebbles (1962)

I will just love you, Frenchy, all of me there is just loving you forever.

The Sand Pebbles (1962)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Richard McKenna (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.