Memorial Day famous quotes
05-18-2025
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So long as there are men, there will be wars.
-- Albert Einstein -
Nowadays, many Americans have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At cemeteries across the country, the graves of the fallen are sadly ignored, and worse, neglected.
-- Allen West -
From 1971 onwards, the Memorial Day holiday was officially observed on the last Monday in May and became the unofficial start of the summer, with barbecues, blockbuster movie openings and mattress sales.
-- Allen West -
As a 22-year Army Veteran who served in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, and as a Civilian Advisor to the Afghan Army in Operation Enduring Freedom, I understand both the gravity of giving the order, and the challenge of carrying it out.
-- Allen West -
While there are towns and cities still planning Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some think the day is for honoring anyone who has died, not just those fallen in service to our country.
-- Allen West -
They, and we, are the legacies of an unbroken chain of proud men and women who served their country with honor, who waged war so that we might know peace, who braved hardship so that we might know opportunity, who paid the ultimate price so that we might know freedom.
-- Barack Obama -
Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay, but we can honor their sacrifice.
-- Barack Obama -
Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.
-- Bergen Evans -
I am proud to be an American. Because an American can eat anything on the face of this earth as long as he has two pieces of bread.
-- Bill Cosby -
Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.
-- Billy Graham -
Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.
-- Bob Marley -
I have long believed that sacrifice is the pinnacle of patriotism.
-- Bob Riley -
Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.
-- Calvin Coolidge -
The hero dead cannot expire: The dead still play their part.
-- Charles Sangster -
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.
-- Chris Crutcher -
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.
-- Cindy Sheehan -
True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.
-- Clarence Darrow -
Happy Memorial Day! Thank you to all our service men and women past and present. You are not forgotten!
-- Courteney Cox -
To be heroic is to be courageous enough to die for something.
-- Criss Jami -
Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.
-- Dan Rather -
On Memorial Day, I was out floating on Lake Norman and came across Denny Hamlin. We struck up a conversation, and one of the first things we were talking about was how much it helped him when he started racing the Cup car and how much it helped his Nationwide program.
-- Danica Patrick -
God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.
-- Daniel Webster -
This was the first Memorial Day [Monday, May 1st, 1865]. African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is Black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the war had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.
-- David W. Blight -
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 -
However horrible the incidents of war may be, the soldier who is called upon to offer and to give his life for his country is the noblest development of mankind.
-- Douglas MacArthur -
Part of the American dream is to live long and die young. Only those Americans who are willing to die for their country are fit to live.
-- Douglas MacArthur -
In war there is no substitute for victory.
-- Douglas MacArthur -
It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.
-- Douglas MacArthur -
If you had seen one day of war, you would pray to God that you would never see another.
-- Duke of Wellington -
It's horrible to think that a small cadre of people would manipulate that information. I mean, for God's sake, we've admitted that we were experimenting on our veterans with mustard gas. So there is no security question. It can't possibly be the reason.
-- Dwight Schultz -
There were big geysers coming up where the shells were landing and there were bodies floating, face down, face up.
-- Elliot Johnson -
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 -
They fell, but o'er their glorious grave Floats free the banner of the cause they died to save.
-- Francis Marion Crawford -
In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt -
Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.
-- Fred Rogers -
Don't forget who your heroes are, what they mean to you, and why they mean that to you.
-- Gale Harold -
Fold him in his country's stars. Roll the drum and fire the volley! What to him are all our wars, What but death bemocking folly?
-- George Henry Boker -
The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher plain.
-- George McGovern -
All that was required of them (i.e. the brain-washed masses) was a primitive patriotism which could be appealed to whenever it was necessary to make them accept longer working hours or shorter rations. And even when they became discontented, as they sometimes did, their discontent led nowhere, because, being without general ideas, they could only focus it on petty specific grievances. The larger evils invariably escaped their notice.
-- George Orwell -
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
-- George S. Patton -
Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.
-- George Washington -
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 -
Patriotism is the vital condition of national permanence.
-- George William Curtis -
Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.
-- Harry S. Truman -
What's right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity - intellect and resources - to do some thing about them.
-- Henry Ford -
They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast, And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -
Your silent tents of green We deck with fragrant flowers; Yours has the suffering been, The memory shall be ours.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -
They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this Nation.
-- Henry Ward Beecher -
The average American is nothing if not patriotic.
-- Herbert Croly -
Some of the shells brought my heart into my mouth; lying there waiting for them was intolerable. I was sure I was going to be blown to pieces.
-- Hervey Allen -
Memorial Day will be celebrated ... by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments.
-- Howard Zinn -
Holocaust Memorial Day is intended as an inclusive commemoration of all the individuals and communities who suffered as a result of the Holocaust - not only Jews, but also Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, political prisoners and dozens of ethnic and other minorities.
-- Jack Straw -
For the love of country they accepted death.
-- James A. Garfield -
Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.
-- James Bryce -
I play an 89-year-old man whose wife has Alzheimer's in a movie called 'Still.' I play a World War II veteran, I acted with my son and it's called 'Memorial Day.'
-- James Cromwell -
Green sods are all their monument; and yet it tells A nobler history than pillared piles, Or the eternal pyramids.
-- James Gates Percival -
Ceremonies are important. But our gratitude has to be more than visits to the troops, and once-a-year Memorial Day ceremonies. We honor the dead best by treating the living well.
-- Jennifer Granholm -
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 -
We should not take a Memorial Day recess until we pass a proper memorial for the slain students in Littleton, Colorado, and other school gun tragedies.
-- John Conyers -
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 -
The best road to progress is freedom's road.
-- John F. Kennedy -
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 -
Their own souls rose and cried Alarum when they heard the sudden wail Of stricken freedom and along the gale Saw her eternal banner quivering wide.
-- John Le Gay Brereton -
As America celebrates Memorial Day, we pay tribute to those who have given their lives in our nation's wars.
-- John M. McHugh -
"Dead upon the field of glory," Hero fit for song and story.
-- John R. Thompson -
Those who will may raise monuments of marble to perpetuate the fame of heroes. Those who will may build memorial halls to remind those who shall gather there in after times what manhood could do and dare for right, and what high examples of virtue and valor have gone before them. But let us make our offering to the ever-living soul. Let us build our benefactions in the ever-growing heart, that they shall live and rise and spread in blessing beyond our sight, beyond the ken of man and beyond the touch of time.
-- Joshua Chamberlain -
From Memorial Day to Labor Day, you may wear white shoes. Not before and not after. As a command, the White Shoe Edict should be clear and simple enough. Do not violate it. In a society in which everything else has become relative, a matter of how it makes you feel, a question between you and your conscience, and an opportunity for you to be really you, this is an absolute.
-- Judith Martin -
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.
-- Kurt Angle -
Life hangs as nothing in the scale against dear Liberty!
-- Lucy Larcom -
In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
-- Mark Twain -
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
-- Mark Twain -
Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace.
-- Martin Luther -
These fallen heroes represent the character of a nation who has a long history of patriotism and honor - and a nation who has fought many battles to keep our country free from threats of terror.
-- Michael N. Castle -
There's no greater city between Memorial Day and Labor Day than Chicago. It's the single best summer city in America.
-- Michael Wilbon -
Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.
-- Michel de Montaigne -
The brave die never, though they sleep in dust: Their courage nerves a thousand living men.
-- Minot Judson Savage -
We cherish too, the Poppy red That grows on fields where valor led, It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies.
-- Moina Michael -
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.
-- Natasha Trethewey -
To our Soldiers: Thank you again and again, you will always matter, not only on this Memorial Day but every day!
-- Nathan East -
There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.
-- Nelson Mandela -
Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.
-- Omar N. Bradley -
It's always the generals with the bloodiest records who are the first to shout what a hell it is. And it's always the war widows who lead the Memorial Day parades.
-- Paddy Chayefsky -
Memorial Day isn't just about honoring veterans, its honoring those who lost their lives. Veterans had the fortune of coming home. For us, that's a reminder of when we come home we still have a responsibility to serve. It's a continuation of service that honors our country and those who fell defending it.
-- Pete Hegseth -
At Concerned Veterans for America, we've made the case that the defense budget could be targeted for spending reform, but in a targeted fashion that genuinely changes unsustainable spending trajectories while preserving U.S. defense capacity.
-- Pete Hegseth -
But fame is theirs - and future days On pillar'd brass shall tell their praise; Shall tell - when cold neglect is dead - "These for their country fought and bled."
-- Philip Freneau -
They saw their injured country's woe; The flaming town, the wasted field; Then rushed to meet the insulting foe; They took the spear, - but left the shield.
-- Philip Freneau -
I dedicate my love and whole heart this Memorial Day to my Dad, a soldier, who like many others, suffers in silence with pride and honor.
-- Pink -
Spirit, that made those heroes dare To die, and leave their children free, Bid Time and Nature gently spare The shaft we raise to them and thee.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson -
Three times a year, theres Strategicon convention, and I go for the board games. It happens Presidents Day, Labor Day, and Memorial Day weekends. You go and take a look at the new board games and meet a couple of board game designers, and you can check out games you dont own from the library and then return them.
-- Rich Sommer -
Our cheer goes back to them, the valiant dead! Laurels and roses on their graves to-day, lilies and laurels over them we lay, and violets o'er each unforgotten head.
-- Richard Hovey -
Knights of the spirit; warriors in the cause Of justice absolute 'twixt man and man.
-- Richard Watson Gilder -
I was born in Munich, and my father was stationed in Salzburg. For the first three years of my life, I lived in Austria back when the American Army was still in Austria. I grew up subsequently in posts around the country around veterans.
-- Rick Atkinson -
There are no points of the compass on the chart of true patriotism.
-- Robert Charles Winthrop -
It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it.
-- Robert E. Lee -
True patriotism isn't cheap. It's about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.
-- Robert Reich -
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
