Famous Quotes & Sayings

Benjamin Harrison

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.

Bob Riley

I have long believed that sacrifice is the pinnacle of patriotism.

Billy Ray Cyrus

All gave some, Some gave all.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

And each man stands with his face in the light. Of his own drawn sword, ready to do what a hero can.

Benjamin Disraeli

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

Calvin Coolidge

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

Jamie Lee Curtis

We sit at our consoles and play "Gears of War", but we don't see images from war. We don't turn on the news and see the evidence of war, the result of war. Maybe twice a year, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, we'll go out, we'll hang our flags, we'll try to inculcate in our children some sense of national honor for the fallen. But really, we don't see it. We just don't see the pictures. There's no drive-by on the freeway of death up close. So we don't really see bravery.

Blaise Pascal

We must kill them in war, just because they live beyond the river. If they lived on this side, we would be called murderers.

Chris Crutcher

I figure if Doc is right about the time I have left,I should wrap up my adolescence in the next few days, get into my early productive stages about the third week of school, go through my midlife crisis during Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, redouble my efforts at productivity and think about my legacy, say, Easter, and start cashing in my 401(k)s a couple weeks before Memorial Day.

Barry Goldwater

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

Elbert Hubbard

Freedom cannot be bestowed - it must be achieved.

Courteney Cox

Happy Memorial Day! Thank you to all our service men and women past and present. You are not forgotten!

Albert Einstein

So long as there are men, there will be wars.

Douglas MacArthur

In war there is no substitute for victory.

Duke of Wellington

If you had seen one day of war, you would pray to God that you would never see another.

Doc Hastings

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.

Desmond Tutu

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Andrew Bacevich

Memorial Day orators will say that a G.I.'s life is priceless. Don't believe it. I know what value the U.S. government assigns to a soldier's life: I've been handed the check. It's roughly what the Yankees will pay Roger Clemens per inning once he starts pitching next month.

Clarence Darrow

True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.

Daniel Webster

God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.

Cindy Sheehan

Go to a nearby military cemetery and look at the American flags stuck on each grave and think of the person buried there who was killed for global domination or for the blunders and egomania of our leadership. And remember, for every person buried there, 10 more loved that person and were shattered by the loss. Instead of saluting, softly say: 'I'm sorry.' ... We need to make Memorial Day a relic of the past.

Andy Rooney

In the United States alone, we spend seven times as much on war as on education. There's something wrong there. On this Memorial Day, we should certainly honor those who have died at war, but we should dedicate this day, not so much to their memory, but to the search for a way to end the idiocy of the wars that killed them.

William Shakespeare

Then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.

Thomas Moore

Peace to each manly soul that sleepeth; Rest to each faithful eye that weepeth...

Thomas S. Monson

When we ponder that vast throng who have died honorably defending home and hearth, we contemplate those immortal words, 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' The feelings of heartfelt gratitude for the supreme sacrifice made by so many cannot be confined to a Memorial Day, a military parade, or a decorated grave.

Ron Kovic

I am the living death, a Memorial Day on wheels. I am your Yankee Doodle Dandy, your John Wayne come home, your Fourth of July firecracker exploding in the grave.

Susan Beth Pfeffer

Matt looked up kids from his high school class. Only three were listed as dead, but a bunch were listed as missing/presumed dead. As a test, he looked us up, but none of our names were on any of the lists. And that's how we know we're alive this Memorial Day.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

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

Tacitus

So as you go into battle, remember your ancestors and remember your descendants.

Silas Weir Mitchell

Alas, how can we help but mourn When hero bosoms yield their breath! A century itself may bear But once the flower of such a death.

Tom DeLay

The architects of this wickedness will find no safe harbor in this world. We will chase our enemies to the furthest corners of this Earth. It must be war without quarter, pursuit without rest, victory without qualification

John Paul Jones

I have not yet begun to fight!

Marcus Garvey

Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.