Memorial Weekend Quotes

• Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Memorial Day, Freedom

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

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• How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!

  Maya Angelou

  Strong Women, Veterans Day, Courage

  "Celebrating Our She-roes" by Jill S. Tietjen, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 10, 2014.

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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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• But the freedom that they fought for, and the country grand they wrought for, Is their monument to-day, and for aye.

  Thomas Dunn English

  Country, Veterans Day, Memorial Day

  Thomas Dunn English (1885). “The Boy's Book of Battle-lyrics: A Collection of Verses Illustrating Some Notable Events in the History of the United States of America, from the Colonial Period to the Outbreak of the Sectional War”

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• I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free.

  Lee Greenwood

  Memorial Day, 4th Of July, Patriotic

  Song: God Bless The U.S.A, Album: American Patriot

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• The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Inspiring, Sports, Memorial Day

  63 Copy quote

• The brave die never, though they sleep in dust: Their courage nerves a thousand living men.

  Minot Judson Savage

  Uplifting, Death, Memorial Day

  Minot Judson Savage (1884). “Poems of modern thought”

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• Decoration Day is the most beautiful of our national holidays.... The grim cannon have turned into palm branches, and the shell and shrapnel into peach blossoms.

  Thomas Bailey Aldrich

  Beautiful, Uplifting, Memorial Day

  Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1903). “Ponkapog Papers”

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• With the tears a Land hath shed. Their graves should ever be green.

  Thomas Bailey Aldrich

  Memorial Day, Land, Remembrance

  Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1907). “The Writings of Thomas Bailey Aldrich: Ponkapog papers, A sea turn, and other papers”

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• They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this Nation.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Memorial Day, American Veterans, Clouds

  8 Copy quote

• They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast, And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Names

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.39, Delphi Classics

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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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• On Memorial Day, I don't want to only remember the combatants. There were also those who came out of the trenches as writers and poets, who started preaching peace, men and women who have made this world a kinder place to live.

  Eric Burdon

  Memorial Day, Men, World

  15 Copy quote
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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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• 137 years later, Memorial Day remains one of America's most cherished patriotic observances. The spirit of this day has not changed - it remains a day to honor those who died defending our freedom and democracy.

  Doc Hastings

  Memorial Day, Military, Patriotic

  FaceBook post by Doc Hastings from May 28, 2013

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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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• Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided republic.

  John A. Logan

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, People

  "Memorial Day Order" by John A. Logan, www.cem.va.gov. May 5, 1868.

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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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• 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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• And they who for their country die shall fill an honored grave, for glory lights the soldier's tomb, and beauty weeps the brave.

  Joseph Rodman Drake

  Inspiring, Country, Memorial Day

  64 Copy quote

• I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did.

  Benjamin Harrison

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Military

  Benjamin Harrison (1893). “Public Papers and Addresses of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States. March 4, 1889, to March 4, 1893”

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• We shall pay any price, bear any burden, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

  John F. Kennedy

  Success, Memorial Day, Freedom

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

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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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• On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation!

  Thomas William Parsons

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Rain

  Thomas William Parsons (1866). “The magnolia [verse].”, p.29

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• "Dead upon the field of glory,"
  Hero fit for song and story.

  John R. Thompson

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Song

  6 Copy quote