MEMORIAL DAY QUOTES
quotations about Memorial Day
Less than one percent of our nation wears the uniform, and so few Americans sees this patriotism with their own eyes or knows someone who exemplifies it. But every day, there are American families who pray for the sound of a familiar voice when the phone rings. For the sound of a loved one's letter or email arriving. More than one million times in our history, it didn't come. And instead, a car pulled up to the house. And there was a knock on the front door. And the sounds of "Taps" floated through a cemetery's trees.
BARACK OBAMA
remarks on Memorial Day, May 30, 2016
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.
LEE GREENWOOD
"Proud to Be an American"
Peace does not come just because we wish for it. Peace must be fought for. It must be built stone by stone.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
remarks on Memorial Day, 1966
Here, at Arlington, the deafening sounds of combat have given way to the silence of these sacred hills. The chaos and confusion of battle has yielded to perfect, precise rows of peace. The Americans who rest here, and their families -- the best of us, those from whom we asked everything -- ask of us today only one thing in return: that we remember them.
BARACK OBAMA
remarks on Memorial Day, May 30, 2016
If you look closely at the white markers that grace these hills, one thing you'll notice is that so many of the years -- dates of birth and dates of death -- are so close together. They belong to young Americans; those who never lived to be honored as veterans for their service -- men who battled their own brothers in Civil War, those who fought as a band of brothers an ocean away, men and women who redefine heroism for a new generation. There are generals buried beside privates they led. Americans known as "Dad" or "Mom." Some only known to God.
BARACK OBAMA
remarks on Memorial Day, May 30, 2016
Today we also hold a special vigil for heroes whose story we cannot tell because their names are known to God alone--the unknown soldiers. We do not know where they came from, who they left behind, or what they hoped to be. But we do know what they did. They fought and they died in a great and noble act of loyalty and love to their families and to our country.
DONALD TRUMP
remarks on Memorial Day, May 29, 2017
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
GEORGE SANTAYANA
Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies
Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
"Decoration Day"
What is this thing--this sense of duty? What tugs at a person until he or she says, "Send me"? Why, in an age when so many have acted only in pursuit of the narrowest self interest, have the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines of this generation volunteered all that they have on behalf of others? Why have they been willing to bear the heaviest burden?
BARACK OBAMA
remarks on Memorial Day, 2009
While the nature of war has changed ... the values that drive our brave men and women in uniform remain constant: honor, courage, selflessness.
BARACK OBAMA
remarks on Memorial Day, 2015
Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again.
RONALD REAGAN
remarks at a Memorial Day Ceremony, May 26, 1986
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
NATHAN HALE
last words before being hanged by the British as a spy, September 22, 1776
Who kept the faith and fought the fight;
The glory theirs, the duty ours.
WALLACE BRUCE
"Memorial Day", Old Homestead Poems
From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
The best and noblest and most consoling part of life is the life of the spirit, of religion, of the patriotism that would die for an idea, of the integrity that cares for right because it is right, and for liberty because in liberty the soul of man grows strong, and for order because without it liberty cannot endure. It is this part of life that Memorial Day is ordained to foster--this immaterial, invaluable, indispensable part of it.
EDWARD S. MARTIN
Youth's Companion
Sharing tales of those we've lost is how we keep from really losing them.
MITCH ALBOM
For One More Day
If the fallen could speak to us, what would they say? Would they console us? Perhaps they might say that while they could not know they'd be called upon to storm a beach through a hail of gunfire, they were willing to give up everything for the defense of our freedom; that while they could not know they'd be called upon to jump into the mountains of Afghanistan and seek an elusive enemy, they were willing to sacrifice all for their country; that while they couldn't possibly know they would be called to leave this world for another, they were willing to take that chance to save the lives of their brothers and sisters in arms.
BARACK OBAMA
remarks on Memorial Day, 2009
You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.
RONALD REAGAN
remarks on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1984
The patriot's blood's the seed of Freedom's tree.
THOMAS CAMPBELL
"Stanzas to the memory of the Spanish Patriots latest killed in resisting the Regency and the Duke of Angouleme"
That's what we memorialize today. That spirit that says, send me, no matter the mission. Send me, no matter the risk. Send me, no matter how great the sacrifice I am called to make. The patriots we memorialize today sacrificed not only all they had but all they would ever know. They gave of themselves until they had nothing more to give. It's natural, when we lose someone we care about, to ask why it had to be them. Why my son, why my sister, why my friend, why not me? These are questions that cannot be answered by us. But on this day we remember that it is on our behalf that they gave their lives. We remember that it is their courage, their unselfishness, their devotion to duty that has sustained this country through all its trials and will sustain us through all the trials to come. We remember that the blessings we enjoy as Americans came at a dear cost; that our very presence here today, as free people in a free society, bears testimony to their enduring legacy.
BARACK OBAMA
remarks by the President at a Memorial Day service, May 30, 2011