quotations about Memorial Day
We owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong.
RONALD REAGAN
remarks at a Memorial Day Ceremony, May 26, 1986
We memorialize our first patriots--blacksmiths and farmers, slaves and freedmen--who never knew the independence they won with their lives. We memorialize the armies of men, and women disguised as men, black and white, who fell in apple orchards and cornfields in a war that saved our union. We memorialize those who gave their lives on the battlefields of our times--from Normandy to Manila, Inchon to Khe Sanh, Baghdad to Helmand, and in jungles, deserts, and city streets around the world.
BARACK OBAMA
remarks by the President at a Memorial Day service, May 30, 2011
On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation!
THOMAS WILLIAM PARSONS
"Dirge for One Who Fell in Battle", The Shadow of the Obelisk: And the Other Poems
I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country ... Yet, we must try to honor them--not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.
RONALD REAGAN
remarks on Memorial Day, 1982
Caring for veterans shouldn't be a partisan issue. It should an American one. We should be willing to show our respect by sacrificing something too, perhaps even, yes, by raising taxes on those who can afford it; who benefit from having a free nation, a free enterprise system could give back to those who enabled their prosperity. We are defined as a nation by how we treat those who have defended us.
JENNIFER M. GRANHOLM
"Honor Sacrifice by Supporting Vets", Huffington Post, May 26, 2012
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
The Great Orations and Senatorial Speech of Daniel Webster
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans, passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.
WALT WHITMAN
"Dirge for Two Veterans"
Honor the few who shared
Freedom's first fight, and dared
To face war's desperate tide at the full flood;
Who fell on hard-won ground,
And into Freedom's wound
Poured the sweet balsam of their brave hearts' blood.
They fell, but o'er their glorious grave
Floats free the banner of the cause they died to save.
FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD
"New National Hymn", Poems of American History
We admire physical courage, but we admire above all things else moral courage. I believe that soldiers will bear me out in saying that both come in time of battle. I take it that the moral courage comes in going into the battle, and the physical courage in staying in.
WOODROW WILSON
remarks on Memorial Day, 1914
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
The Ghosts: And Other Lectures
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God such men lived.
GEORGE S. PATTON
attributed, Exempt From Fear
We have no day so dedicated to sentiment as this one, and sentiment is a great power. It behooves us not to waste it. The spirit of this day, which stirs our feelings, is a force like worship, which should help us in our lives, and which should stimulate us to discover and discharge the duties that we owe to civilization and to one another.
EDWARD S. MARTIN
Youth's Companion