Quotes for Memorial Day

“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

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”— President Ronald Reagan

“We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. 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. If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us.

Let us, then, at the appointed time gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest of flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon a nation’s gratitude, the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.”— John A. Logan, Establishing Decoration Day, 1868

“I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”— Patrick Henry

“All we have of freedom, all we use or know,
This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.”—Rudyard Kipling

“They are dead; but they live in each Patriot’s breast,
And their names are engraven on honor’s bright crest.”— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others.”—William Allen White

“Patriotism is the vital condition of national permanence.”—George William Curtis

“We can’t all be Washingtons, but we can all be patriots.”—Charles F. Browne

“God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.”—Daniel Webster

“We would rather die on our feet than live on our knee.”—President Roosevelt

“For love of country they accepted death.”—President Garfield

“A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America’ for an amount of ‘up to and including my life.’”