These memorial day quotes will inspire you. Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States to honor and mourn the U.S. military personnel who have died in the course of carrying out their duties.
Below you will find a collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging memorial day quotes, memorial day sayings, and memorial day proverbs.
Best Memorial Day Quotes
- “The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we – in a less final, less heroic way – be willing to give of ourselves.” ~ Ronald Reagan
- “It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.” ~ Norman Schwarzkopf
- “Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.” ~ Harry S. Truman
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“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” ~ Nathan Hale
- “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” ~ George S. Patton
- “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” ~ Joseph Campbell
- “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” ~ Billy Graham
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“Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.” ~ Michel de Montaigne
- “Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.” ~ Omar N. Bradley
- “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” ~ Mark Twain
- “The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.” ~ John F. Kennedy
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“To our Soldiers: Thank you again and again, you will always matter, not only on this Memorial Day but every day!” ~ Nathan East
- “Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.” ~ Ronald Reagan , Memorial day quotes for loved ones
- “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
- “Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson -
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” ~ Desmond Tutu
- “The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” ~ Socrates
- “Today, the United States stands as a beacon of liberty and democratic strength before the community of nations. We are resolved to stand firm against those who would destroy the freedoms we cherish. We are determined to achieve an enduring peace – a peace with liberty and with honor. This determination, this resolve, is the highest tribute we can pay to the many who have fallen in the service of our Nation.” ~ Ronald Reagan
- “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” ~ Maya Angelou
- “We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.” ~ Moina Michael -
“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.” ~ George Washington
- “Memorial Day this year is especially important as we are reminded almost daily of the great sacrifices that the men and women of the Armed Services make to defend our way of life.” ~ Robin Hayes
- “They are dead; but they live in each Patriot’s breast, And their names are engraven on honor’s bright crest.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “These fallen heroes represent the character of a nation who has a long history of patriotism and honor – and a nation who has fought many battles to keep our country free from threats of terror.” ~ Michael N. Castle
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“The brave die never, though they sleep in dust: Their courage nerves a thousand living men.” ~ Minot Judson Savage
- “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” ~ John F. Kennedy
- “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
- “Ceremonies are important. But our gratitude has to be more than visits to the troops, and once-a-year Memorial Day ceremonies. We honor the dead best by treating the living well.” ~ Jennifer Granholm
- “They, and we, are the legacies of an unbroken chain of proud men and women who served their country with honor, who waged war so that we might know peace, who braved hardship so that we might know opportunity, who paid the ultimate price so that we might know freedom.” ~ Barack Obama
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“You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.” ~ Aristotle
- “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
- “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
- “My heroes are those who risk their lives every day to protect our world and make it a better place – police, firefighters and members of our armed forces.” ~ Sidney Sheldon
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“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.” ~ Thucydides
- “Each of the patriots whom we remember on this day was first a beloved son or daughter, a brother or sister, or a spouse, friend, and neighbor.” ~ George H. W. Bush , Memorial day quotes for friends
- “God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.” ~ Daniel Webster
- “The willingness of America’s veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude.” ~ Jeff Miller
- “Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.” ~ James Bryce
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“Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.” ~ Bob Marley
- “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
- “I can’t claim to know the words of all the national anthems in the world, but I don’t know of any other that ends with a question and a challenge as ours does: Does that flag still wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? That is what we must all ask.” ~ Ronald Reagan
- “Part of the American dream is to live long and die young. Only those Americans who are willing to die for their country are fit to live.” ~ Douglas MacArthur
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“The best road to progress is freedom’s road.” ~ John F. Kennedy
- “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
- “Nowadays, many Americans have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At cemeteries across the country, the graves of the fallen are sadly ignored, and worse, neglected.” ~ Allen West
- “I dedicate my love and whole heart this Memorial Day to my Dad, a soldier, who like many others, suffers in silence with pride and honor.” ~ Pink , Memorial day quotes for dad
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“Bravery never goes out of fashion.” ~ William Makepeace Thackeray
- “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” ~ George Washington
- “True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.” ~ Clarence Darrow
- “I am going to take something I learned over in Israel. Their Independence Day is preceded the 24 hours before with Memorial Day, so it gives them a chance to serve and reflect and then celebrate. I am going to try to start that tradition here in America.” ~ Glenn Beck
- “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
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“One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.” ~ Antonio Porchia
- “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
- “I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead: cheers for the
living; tears for the dead.” ~ Robert Green Ingersoll - “If you had seen one day of war, you would pray to God that you would never see another.” ~ Duke of Wellington
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“Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.” ~ Wayne Dyer
- “Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best they should not. The real war will never get in the books.” ~ Walt Whitman
- “There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.” ~ Nelson Mandela
- “The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one’s country deep enough to call her to a higher plain.” ~ George McGovern
- “Without heroes, we are all plain people and don’t know how far we can go.” ~ Bernard Malamud
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“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” ~ Richard Grenier
- “If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.” ~ Ronald Reagan
- “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
- “Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - “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
