Famous Quotes & Sayings

Ronald Reagan

We owe this freedom of choice and action to those men and women in uniform who have served this nation and its interests in time of need. In particular, we are forever indebted to those who have given their lives that we might be free.

Ronald Reagan

Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.

Ronald Reagan

Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.

Ronald Reagan

The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we - in a less final, less heroic way - be willing to give of ourselves.

Natasha Trethewey

I used to come out here every Fourth of July as a child to picnic and to swim on the island, to tour the fort and wander through it. And all of that time, I never knew anything about the presence of black soldiers on the island. And so, for me, this was a way of trying to tell another history, a lost or a forgotten or a little-known history about these black soldiers who played an important part in American history.” Trethewey said. Coincidentally, she was born “exactly 100 years to the day that Mississippi celebrated the first Confederate Memorial Day, April 26, 1866.

Kurt Angle

Canada is lacking two things. It's true. Don't make me say it again. The first is Olympic Heroes [...] The second thing that Canada is lacking is Memorial Day, which is today by the way, where we in the States celebrate our war heroes by having barbeques . And I realize here in Canada you can't have barbeques because you'd probably be attacked by a moose, or caribou, or even a grizzly.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.

Niccolo Machiavelli

One should never allow chaos to develop in order to avoid going to war, because one does not avoid a war but instead puts it off to his disadvantage

Nathan East

To our Soldiers: Thank you again and again, you will always matter, not only on this Memorial Day but every day!

John Eisenhower

I was a lieutenant in World War II.

Al Spalding

No human mind may measure the blessings conferred by the game of base ball on the soldiers of the Civil War. It had its earliest evolution when soldiers, North and South, were striving to forget their foes by cultivating, through this grand game, fraternal friendships with comrades in arms.

Dito Montiel

I have friends who have had PTSD, and you can get it from other things than war.

Robert E. Lee

Sir, if you ever presume again to speak disrespectfully of General Grant in my presence, either you or I will sever his connection with this university.

Richard Perle

Even now, the irony that so non-intellectual a man should choose to engage the Soviet Union on the battlefield of ideas has eluded most commentators and historians.

Richard Paul Evans

. . .and every native has a story of winter – stories that usually begin, You call this a storm? And grow in the telling like battle tales shared by graying war veterans. It’s a peculiar character flaw to those of us from cold climates that we feel superior to those who have the sense to live elsewhere.

Richard Holbrooke

The World War II generation believed the United States could do anything - anything... And Vietnam was a shattering experience for everyone.

Townsend Harris

If war should break out between England and Japan, the latter would suffer much more than the former.

Townsend Harris

The President of the United States thinks that for the Japanese opium is more dangerous than war.

Will Cuppy

I borrow to pay my honest debts and not to squander foolishly. What's more, I confine my borrowing to those who can well afford it. I don't go around sponging on widows and orphans unless they have plenty.

Samuel Richardson

A widow's refusal of a lover is seldom so explicit as to exclude hope.

Josh Billings

Young widows still bide their time.

Mark Twain

There's something in it when a body like the widow or the parson prays, but it don't work for me, and I reckon it don't work for only just the right kind.

George R. R. Martin

Truly, sister, you were born to be a widow. (Tyrion to Cersei)

Honore de Balzac

Handsome widows, after a twelve-month, enjoy a latitude and longitude without limit.