Memorial Day Weekend Quotes

• The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree.

  Thomas Campbell

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Freedom

  Thomas Campbell, J. Logie Robertson (1884). “The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell”, p.215, Ardent Media

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• 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

  Memorial Day, Military, Patriotic

  FaceBook post by Doc Hastings from May 28, 2013

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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 Rodman Drake

  Inspiring, Country, Memorial Day

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• On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation!

  Thomas William Parsons

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Rain

  Thomas William Parsons (1866). “The magnolia [verse].”, p.29

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

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Memorial Day, American Veterans, Clouds

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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

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• I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free.

  Lee Greenwood

  Memorial Day, 4th Of July, Patriotic

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

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• 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

  Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Military

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• The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism is loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Country, Memorial Day

  "The Czar's Soliloquy". Essay by Mark Twain, first published in The North American Review, No. DLXXX (p. 324), March 1905.

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• 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

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, People

  "Memorial Day Order" by John A. Logan, www.cem.va.gov. May 5, 1868.

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• 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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• 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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• 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

  Lonely, Memorial Day, Military

  New Numbers no. 4 (1914) "The Dead"

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• "Dead upon the field of glory,"
  Hero fit for song and story.

  John R. Thompson

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Song

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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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• 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

  Inspirational, Memorial Day, Freedom

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

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• Green sods are all their monument; and yet it tells A nobler history than pillared piles, Or the eternal pyramids.

  James Gates Percival

  Memorial Day, Pyramids, Green

  James Gates Percival, Erasmus Darwin North (1859). “The poetical works of James Gates Percival”, p.286

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• 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

  Memorial Day, Men, World

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• Who kept the faith and fought the fight; The glory theirs, the duty ours.

  Wallace Bruce Matthews Carruthers

  Inspiring, Memorial Day, Memories

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

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Inspiring, Sports, Memorial Day

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• My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Country

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

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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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