Great Memorial Day Quotes

• Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay, but we can honor their sacrifice.

  Barack Obama

  Memorial Day, Hero, Sacrifice

  Remarks by the President at a Memorial Day Service, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. May 30, 2011.

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  It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.

  Norman Schwarzkopf

  Inspiring, Courage, Veterans Day

  Norman Schwarzkopf (2010). “It Doesn't Take a Hero: The Autobiography of General Norman Schwarzkopf”, p.13, Bantam

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• I would rather be remembered by a song than by a victory.

  Alexander Smith

  Memorial Day, Song, Singing

  Alexander Smith (1863). “Dreamthorp: A Book of Essays Written in the Country”, p.144

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• I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

  James A. Baldwin

  Inspirational, Country, Memorial Day

  "Notes of a Native Son". Book by James A. Baldwin, archive.nytimes.com. 1955.

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• What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

  Helen Keller

  Love, Sympathy, Death

  Helen Keller (1957). “The Open Door”, Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday

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• My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Country

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

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  It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

  George S. Patton

  Sympathy, Death, Wisdom

  Speech at the Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts, on June 07, 1945. "Patton, ordeal and triumph". Book by Ladislas Farago, 1963.

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• The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism is loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Country, Memorial Day

  "The Czar's Soliloquy". Essay by Mark Twain, first published in The North American Review, No. DLXXX (p. 324), March 1905.

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• Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.

  George Washington

  Memorial Day, Freedom, 4th Of July

  George Washington, Stephen Lucas (1999). “The Quotable George Washington: The Wisdom of an American Patriot”, p.55, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.

  Bob Marley

  Encouraging, Memorial Day, Freedom

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Memorial Day this year is especially important as we are reminded almost daily of the great sacrifices that the men and women of the Armed Services make to defend our way of life.

  Robin Hayes

  Memorial Day, Sacrifice, Men

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  I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

  Nathan Hale

  Inspirational, Life, Country

  Before being executed as a spy by the British, 22 September 1776, in Henry Phelps Johnston 'Nathan Hale, 1776' (1914) ch. 7.

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• A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

  Joseph Campbell

  Life, Inspiring, Veterans Day

  Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.151, Anchor

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  Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

  Barry Goldwater

  Memorial Day, Freedom, Gay

  Speech accepting nomination for president at Republican National Convention, San Francisco, Cal., 16 July 1964

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• The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree.

  Thomas Campbell

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Freedom

  Thomas Campbell, J. Logie Robertson (1884). “The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell”, p.215, Ardent Media

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• There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.

  William J. Clinton

  Memorial Day, Freedom, 4th Of July

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  The willingness of America's veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude.

  Jeff Miller

  Thanksgiving, Country, Gratitude

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• A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.

  George William Curtis

  Loyalty, Country, Memorial Day

  George William Curtis (1894). “On the principles and character of American institutions, and the duties of American citizens, 1856-1891”

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• Heroism is latent in every human soul - However humble or unknown, they (the veterans) have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all the self-denials - privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life-long hurts and losses, death itself - for some great good, dimly seen but dearly held.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  Memorial Day, Courage, Hurt

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• Four things support the world: the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the good, and the valor of the brave

  Elijah Muhammad

  Wise, Memorial Day, Prayer

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• The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Memorial Day, Freedom

  Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation, delivered 22 October 1962

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• This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.

  Elmer Davis

  Country, Courage, Veterans Day

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• True patriotism isn't cheap. It's about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.

  Robert Reich

  Memorial Day, America, Remembrance

  Robert Reich (2017). “Economics in Wonderland: Robert Reich's Cartoon Guide to a Political World Gone Mad and Mean”, p.50, Fantagraphics Books

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• Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Memorial Day, Hero, Patriotic

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• A horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.

  Rossiter W. Raymond

  Sympathy, Condolences, Sight

  Attributed in "St. Andrew's Cross" edited by Hubert Carleton, Vol. XXIV, No. 12, (p. 12), September 1910.

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