Memorial Day Quotes

I've also included a lovely Memorial Day Tribute musical video for your viewing.

Memorial Day Quotes Index

Musical Video Memorial Day Tribute

Moving Memorial Day tribute with a combination of music to include "I Will You Remember You" by song writers: Sarah Ann Mclachlan / Seamus Egan / Dave Merenda; followed by "Arlington" by Trace Adkins; and finishing up with "Taps".

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Appreciation

"Ah! never shall the land forget How gushed the life-blood of her brave -"
~ William Cullen Bryant

"With the tears a Land hath shed Their graves should ever be green."
~ Thomas Bailey Aldrich

"Who kept the faith and fought the fight; The glory theirs, the duty ours."
~ Wallace Bruce

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Beautiful

"These heroes are dead. They died for liberty - they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, and the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of storm, each in the windowless Place of Rest. Earth may run red with other wars - they are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death. I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead: cheers for the living; tears for the dead."
~ Robert G. Ingersoll

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Beyond the Grave

"The dead soldier's silence sings our national anthem."
~ Aaron Kilbourn

"They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this Nation."
~ Henry Ward Beecher

"Are they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal language? Are they dead that yet act? Are they dead that yet move upon society and inspire the people with nobler motives and more heroic patriotism?"
~ Henry Ward Beecher

"The brave die never, though they sleep in dust:
Their courage nerves a thousand living men."
~ Minot J. Savage

T"hey are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast,
And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest."
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Bible Verses

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."
~ Bible – Psalm 23:4 (KJV)

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he chose for his inheritance."
~ Bible – Psalm 33:12 (NIV)

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed." Bible - Psalm 34:18 (NLT)

"Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted."
~ Bible – Matthew 5:4 (NIV)

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace."
~ Bible Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)

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Comforting

"The angels are always near to those who are grieving, to whisper to them that their loved ones are safe in the hand of God."
~ Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994

"Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow."
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

"Peace to each manly soul that sleepeth;
Rest to each faithful eye that weepeth..."
~ Thomas Moore

"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight."
~ Kahlil Gibran

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Cost of Freedom

"The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree."
~ Thomas Campbell

"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

"The story of America's quest for freedom is inscribed on her history in the blood of her patriots."
~ Randy Vader

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Eternal Life

For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
~ William Penn

"To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to died".
~ Thomas Campbell, "Hallowed Ground"

"Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality."
~ Emily Dickinson

"Those we hold closest to our hearts never truly leave us. They live on in the kindness they have shared and the love they brought into our lives."
~ Anonymous

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Freedom

"The greatest glory of a free-born people is to transmit that freedom to their children. -William Havard Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt."
~ Bergen Evans

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
~ William Pitt

"Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people. Action, self-reliance, the vision of self and the future have been the only means by which the oppressed have seen and realized the light of their own freedom."
~ Marcus Garvey

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Hero

"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself."
~ Joseph Campbell

"The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example."
~ Benjamin Disraeli

"'Dead upon the field of glory,'
Hero fit for song and story."
~ John Randolph Thompason

"The hero dead cannot expire:
The dead still play their part."
~ Charles Sangster

"How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!"
~ Maya Angelou

"And each man stands with his face in the light of his own drawn sword. Ready to do what a hero can."
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet

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Honoring the Dead

"Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold."
~ Rupert Brooke

"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

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In Memory

"Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored."
~ Daniel Webster

"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

"Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours."
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation!"
~ Thomas William Parsons

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Inspirational

"When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure."
~ Author Unknown

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal,
love leaves a memory no one can steal."
~ From a headstone in Ireland

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Liberty

"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

"Life hangs as nothing in the scale against dear Liberty!"
~ Lucy Larcom

"The cost of liberty is less than the cost of repression."
~ Web Dubois

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Love of Country

"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
~ Nathan Hale

"For love of country they accepted death..."
~ James A. Garfield

"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
~ John F. Kennedy

"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

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America."
~ William J. Clinton

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

"Better than honor and glory, and History's iron pen, Was the thought of duty done and the love of his fellow-men."
~ Richard Watson Gilder

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Memorial Day

"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

"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

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Memorial Day Poems

"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

"As I approach the gates of heaven;
St. Peter I will tell;
One more soldier reporting sir;
I've served my time in hell."
~ Mark Anthony Gresswell

"Cover them over with beautiful flowers,
Deck them with garlands, those brothers of ours,
Lying so silent by night and by day
Sleeping the years of their manhood away.
Give them the meed they have won in the past;
Give them the honors their future forcast;
Give them the chaplets they won in the strife;
Give them the laurels they lost with their life."
~ Will Carleton

"Our battle-fields, safe in the keeping
Of Nature's kind, fostering care,
Are blooming, - our heroes are sleeping, -
And peace broods perennial there."
~ John H. Jewett

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Mourning

"Tears are God’s gift to us. Our holy water. They heal us as they flow."
~ Rita Schiano, Sweet Bitter Love, 1997, published by The Reed Edwards Company

"As you comprehend this profound loss, let yourself cry knowing each tear is a note of love rising to the heavens..."
~ Author Unknown

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Patriotism

"And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free, and I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me and I'll proudly stand next to him to defend her still today, 'cuz there ain't no doubt I love this land, god bless the USA."
~ Lee Greenwood – lyrics to "Proud to be an American"

"These martyrs of patriotism gave their lives for an idea."
~ Schuyler Colfax

"I have long believed that sacrifice is the pinnacle of patriotism."
~ Bob Riley

"Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong."
~ James Bryce

"Patriotism was a living fire of unquestioned belief and purpose."
~ Frank Knox

"There are no points of the compass on the chart of true patriotism."
~ Robert Charles Winthrop

"There's intense national feeling in America that could be called patriotism."
~ Michael Ignatieff

"The average American is nothing if not patriotic."
~ Herbert Croly

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
~ Mark Twain

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

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Remembrance

"Perform, then, this one act of remembrance before this Day passes - Remember there is an army of defense and advance that never dies and never surrenders, but is increasingly recruited from the eternal sources of the American spirit and from the generations of American youth."
~ W.J. Cameron

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Tribute to Soldiers

"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 Drake

"We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them."
~ Francis A. Walker

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War

"The purpose of all war is ultimately peace."
~ Saint Augustine

"In war, there is no prize for the runner-up."
~ General Omar Bradley

"So long as there are men there will be wars."
~ Albert Einstein

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
~ Albert Einstein

"Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best they should not. The real war will never get in the books."
~ Walt Whitman

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