“I leave it to your discretion to strike or not, but the American colors must not be pulled down over my head today.”
Final instructions to Lieutenant John Joliffe Yarnall, upon leaving the disabled Lawrence in the Battle of Lake Erie (10 September 1813)
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Oliver Hazard Perry 5
United States Naval Officer 1785–1819Related quotes

As When You Were a Child.
För levande och döda (For the Living and the Dead) 1996

[199808050415.VAA24026@wall.org, 1998]
Usenet postings, 1998

“To live on the earth is to become part of it
To strike down roots that won't pull free”
"I've Learned Some Things" (1977)
Variant translations:
One can look at the sky for hours
One can look for hours at the sea, at a bird, at a child
Living on this world is being one with it
Growing unbreakable roots into it
Translated as "There Is One Thing I Learned From What I Lived" by Sãleyman Fatih Akgãl at TC Turkish Poetry Pages
I've Learned Some Things (2008)
Context: A person can gaze at the sky for hours
Can gaze for hours at a bird, a child, the sea
To live on the earth is to become part of it
To strike down roots that won't pull free

Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie (2003)
Here's Your Sign

“If you must be indiscrete, be discrete in your indiscretion.”

A Hereditary Book on the Art of War (1632)

“The night is a skin pulled over the head of day that the day may be in torment.”
Source: Nightwood (1936), Ch. 5 : Watchman, What of the Night?