MEMORIAL DAY: Best Ever Quotations for Memorial Day

Best Ever Quotations for Memorial Day

1. The dead soldier’s silence sings our national anthem. ~ Aaron Kilbourn
2. 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
3. They are dead; but they live in each Patriot’s breast, And their names are engraven on honor’s bright crest. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
4. The patriot’s blood is the seed of Freedom’s tree. ~ Thomas Campbell
5. 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
6. 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
7. Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. ~ Unknown
8. Their silent wounds have speech/ More eloquent than men; / Their tones can deeper reach / Than human voice or pen. ~ William Woodman
9. The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
10. They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this Nation. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
11. Who kept the faith and fought the fight/ The glory theirs, the duty ours. ~ Wallace Bruce
12. On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation! ~ Thomas William Parsons
13. The brave die never, though they sleep in dust/ Their courage nerves a thousand living men. ~ Minot J. Savage
14. 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
15. 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 Drake
16. 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
17. With the tears a Land hath shed/Their graves should ever be green. ~ Thomas Bailey Aldrich
18. 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
19. They fell, but o’er their glorious grave/ Floats free the banner of the cause they died to save. ~ Francis Marion Crawford
20. The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
21. Perform, then, this one act of remembrance before this Day passes – Remember there is an army of defense and advance that never dies and never surrenders, but is increasingly recruited from the eternal sources of the American spirit and from the generations of American youth. ~ W.J. Cameron
22. Life hangs as nothing in the scale against dear Liberty! ~ Lucy Larcom
23. All we have of freedom, all we use or know – / This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.  ~ Rudyard Kipling, The Old Issue, 1899
24. 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
25. Their own souls rose and cried / Alarum when they heard the sudden wail / Of stricken freedom and along the gale / Saw her eternal banner quivering wide. /The dead soldier’s silence sings our national anthem. ~ Aaron Kilbourn
26. But fame is theirs – and future days/ On pillar’d brass shall tell their praise; / Shall tell – when cold neglect is dead -/ “These for their country fought and bled.” ~ Philip Freneau
27. The story of America’s quest for freedom is inscribed on her history in the blood of her patriots. ~ Randy Vader
28.  Ah! never shall the land forget/ How gushed the life-blood of her brave. ~William Cullen Bryant
29. We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them.  ~ Francis A. Walker
30. How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!  ~ Maya Angelou