Memorial Day Remembrance Quotes

• 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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• Ah! never shall the land forget How gushed the life-blood of her brave -

  William C. Bryant

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Blood

  William Cullen Bryant, “The Battle-Field”

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• 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

  Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Men

  Richard Watson Gilder (1900). “Five Books of Song”

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• The Flag still floats unblotted with defeat! But ah the blood that keeps its ripples red, The starry lives that keep its field alight.

  Rupert Hughes

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Blood

  7 Copy quote

• Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.

  Bergen Evans

  Memorial Day, Freedom, Fear

  "The Natural History of Nonsense". Book by Bergen Evans, 1946.

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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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• 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

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Cheer

  Richard Hovey (1908). “Along the Trail”

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• 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

  Beautiful, Uplifting, Memorial Day

  Will Carleton (1875). “Farm Legends”, p.87, Belford Bros.

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• Life hangs as nothing in the scale against dear Liberty!

  Lucy Larcom

  Memorial Day, Remembrance, Liberty

  Lucy Larcom (1869). “Poems”, p.131

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• They fell, but o'er their glorious grave Floats free the banner of the cause they died to save.

  Francis Marion Crawford

  Memorial Day, Loss, Causes

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

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Memorial Day, American Veterans, Clouds

  9 Copy quote

• True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.

  Arthur Ashe

  Memorial Day, Courage, Hero

  "Worth Repeating: More Than 5,000 Classic and Contemporary Quotes" by Bob Kelly, p. 169, 2003.

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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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• 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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• 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

  Memorial Day, Mean, Self

  Marcus Garvey (2015). “Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey”, p.6, Ravenio Books

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• 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

  Memorial Day, Peace, Ubuntu

  "On Marriage". Book by Martin Luther, 1530.

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• 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

  Thank You, Country, Memorial Day

  13 Copy quote

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

  Marcus Garvey

  Memorial Day, People, Suffering

  Marcus Garvey (2015). “Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey”, p.6, Ravenio Books

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• They saw their injured country's woe.

  Philip Freneau

  Country, Memorial Day, Woe

  Philip Freneau (1963). “The Poems of Philip Freneau: Poet of the American Revolution (Complete)”, p.521, Library of Alexandria

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• I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead: cheers for the
  living; tears for the dead.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Memorial Day, Cheer, Soldier

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.3100, Library of Alexandria

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• Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land, God Bless the U.S.A.

  Lee Greenwood

  Memorial Day, Land, Doubt

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

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• Cover them over with beautiful flowers, Deck them with garlands, those brothers of ours, Lying so silent by night and by day.

  Will Carleton

  Beautiful, Memorial Day, Brother

  Will Carleton (1875). “Farm Legends”, p.87, Belford Bros.

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• 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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• 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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