What is flat coat?

Famous quotes containing the words flat and/or coat:

    If the juggler is tired now, if the broom stands
    In the dust again, if the table starts to drop
    Through the daily dark again, and though the plate
    Lies flat on the table top,
    For him we batter our hands
    Who has won for once over the world’s weight.
    Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)

    Want is a growing giant whom the coat of Have was never large enough to cover.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)