Monday, May 27th is the day Americans across the country remember the brave men and women who gave their lives for that country. Some plan to observe the holiday with a parade, a service, or a moment of silence, these are some of the most dignified and patriotic quotes for the nation’s greatest figures as a way to remember those who have sacrificed themselves for freedom.
Americans will gather around with their families to celebrate active soldiers, too. Active solders are the ones that are responsible for the freedom of a country and without them, citizens and civilians wouldn’t feel safe.
Many people will visit cemeteries and memorials on Memorial Day to honor those who died in military service. Some of the volunteers place an American flag on each grave in national cemeteries in order to honor the fallen ones.
Here you will find some of the most beautiful, heart touching and respectful quotes to pay respect to the people who protected the United States of America.
- “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.” –Ronald Reagan
- “Patriotism is not short, frenzied outburst of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”– Adlai Stevenson
- “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “Patriotism is when the love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”– Charles de Gaulle
- “The brave die never, though they sleep in dust: Their courage nerves a thousand living men.” –Minot J. Savage
- “America without her soldiers would be like God without His angels.”– Claudia Pemberton
- “The veterans of our military services have put their lives on the line to protect the freedoms that we enjoy. They have dedicated their lives to their country and deserve to be recognized for their commitment.” – Judd Gregg
- “Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.” –Unknown
- “I believe our flag is more than just cloth and ink. It is a universally recognized symbol that stands for liberty, and freedom. It is the history of our nation, and it’s marked by the blood of those who died defending it.”– John Thune
- “For the love of country, they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.” –James A. Garfield
- “The willingness of America’s veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude.”– Jeff Miller
- “I have long believed that sacrifice is the pinnacle of patriotism.”– Bob Riley
- “This is the day we pay homage to all those who didn’t come home. This is not Veterans Day, it’s not a celebration, it is a day of solemn contemplation over the cost of freedom.” –Tamra Bolton
- “Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world. A veteran does not have that problem.” –Ronald Reagan
- “There is nothing nobler than risking your life for your country.”– Nick Lampson
- “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God such men lived.” –George S. Patton
- “Over all our happy country – over all our Nation spread, is a band of noble heroes– is our Army of the Dead.”– Will Carleton
- “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
- “What I can do for my country, I am willing to do.”– Christopher Gadsden
- “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes.” –Maya Angelou
- “Home of the free, because of the brave.” –Unknown
- “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”– Nathan Hale
- “Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” –Benjamin Franklin
- “The patriot’s blood is the seed of freedom’s tree.” –Thomas Campbell
- “I love America more than any other country in the world, and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”– James A. Baldwin
- “Here men endured that a nation might live.” –Herbert Hoover
- “In the aftermath, we are because they were.” –RJ Heller
- “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God such men lived.”– George S. Patton
- “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.”– William J. Clinton
- “May we never forget freedom isn’t free.” –Unknown
- “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”– Mark Twain
- “A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” –Bob Dylan
- “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”– John F. Kennedy
- “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
- “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter the words, but to live by them.” –John F. Kennedy
- “On this day, take time to remember those who have fallen. But on every day after, do more; put the freedoms they died for to greater and nobler uses.” –Richelle E. Goodrich
- “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
- “The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.” – Benjamin Disraeli
- “Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.” – Douglas Macarthur
- “Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost.” –Robert A. Heinlein
- “The brave die never, though they sleep in dust, their courage nerves a thousand living men.” -Minot J. Savage
- “We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke; but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens. “ -James A. Garfield
- “Heroism is not only in the man but in the occasion.” – Calvin Coolidge
- “Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.” -Uknown
- “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
- “The highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country“George S. Patton Jr.
- “Finally, I wish to remember the millions of Allied servicemen and prisoners of war who lived the story of the Second World War. Many of these men never came home; many others returned bearing emotional and physical scars that would stay with them for the rest of their lives. I come away from this book with the deepest appreciation for what these men endured, and what they sacrificed, for the good of humanity.“ -Laura Hillenbrand
- “Their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.” –Daniel Webster
- “We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” – Cynthia Ozick
- “Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost.“ -Robert A. Heinlein
- “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
- “Have you ever stopped to ponder the amount of blood spilled, the volume of tears shed, the degree of pain and anguish endured, the number of noblemen and women lost in battle so that we as individuals might have a say in governing our country? Honor the lives sacrificed for your freedoms.“-Richelle E. Goodrich
- “Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.“-John Adams
- “In the aftermath, we are because they were.“RJ Heller
- “Do not forget that the armed forces are the servants of the people. You do not make national policy; it is we, the civilians, who decide these issues and it is your duty to carry out these tasks with which you are entrusted.“M. A. Jinnah
- “The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.“Abraham Lincoln
- “This country has not seen and probably will never know the true level of sacrifice of our veterans. As a civilian, I owe an unpayable debt to all our military. […] Let’s all take a remembrance for all veterans who served or are serving, peacetime or wartime and gone or still with us.“Thomas M Smith
- “That’s what any committed patriot would do: Fight to the last. Defeat your enemy at any cost; then hope you have enough left to rebuild.“Randolph D. Calverhall
- “Most have been forgotten. Most deserve to be forgotten. The heroes will always be remembered. The best.“George R.R. Martin
- “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.“-Winston S. Churchill
- “Only the dead have seen the end of the war.“Plato
- “Soldiers themselves are reluctant to evaluate the costs of war, but someone must. That evaluation, ongoing and unadulterated by politics, may be the one thing a country absolutely owes the soldiers who defend its borders.“Sebastian Junger
- “Damn the wars but bless the soldier.“T.L. Moffitt
- “You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.“Robert A. Heinlein
- “The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.“G.K. Chesterton
- “America’s finest – our men and women in uniform –are a force for good throughout the world, and that is nothing to apologize for.“Sarah Palin
- “Patriotism means to stand by the people, not to stand by the party.“Sumit Agarwal
- “Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.” – Douglas Macarthur
- “If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love, we find out who we want to be; in war, we find out who we are.“Kristin Hannah
- “They were all in and they were all together, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.“Bob Richardson
- “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of those who threaten it.“U.S. Department of the Navy
- “It may sound corny, but what’s wrong with wanting to fight for your country. Why are people reluctant to use the word patriotism?“Jimmy Stewart
- “To be heroic is to be courageous enough to die for something.“Criss Jami
- “Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay.” – Barack Obama
- “My old man says when it’s time to be counted, the important thing is to be man enough to stand up.“Robert A. Heinlein
- “No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck.“Erich Maria Remarque
- “Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with.“Brodi Ashton
- “I venture to suggest that patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.“Adlai E. Stevenson
- “And when all the wars are over, a butterfly will still be beautiful.“Ruskin Bond
- “If we don’t end the war, war will end us.“H.G. Wells
- “I don’t believe in the Constitution because I’m American, I’m American because I believe in the Constitution.“J.S.B. Morse
- “Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.“Peter S. Beagle
- “The birthplace of anarchy is the cemetery of freedom.“Craig D. Lounsbrough
- “Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes“Bertolt Brecht “My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death.“
Mark Twain - “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit”- Uknown
- “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”-Christopher Reeve
- “Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”-Uknown
- “Happy Memorial Day to past, present and fallen soldiers. Today we honor you, salute you for defending our country and our freedom.”-Uknown
- “Home of the free, because of the brave.”- Uknown
- “Better to die fighting for freedom than be a prisoner all the days of your life.”- Bob Marley
- 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
- I am very proud to be an American, and won’t forget those men who gave that happiness to us.- Uknown
- Memorial day remembering those served all gave some, some gave all. Gone but never forgotten- Uknown
- 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 Ash
- This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.-Elmer Davis
- Four things support the world the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the good, and the valor of the brave.-Muhammad
- Heroes never die. They live on forever in the hearts and minds of those who would follow in their footsteps. -Emily Potter
- When we are no longer willing to die for the freedom of others, we shall no longer merit freedom for ourselves. -John Warwick Montgomery
- The next generation must never forget the service, sacrifice and commitment of those who enable us to live in the greatest nation the world has ever known which is the essence of Memorial Day.-Lt. Col Allen B. West
- Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid.-John
Wishing you a beautiful Memorial Day weekend … In honor of all the veterans as well as the active service members. Thank you for all you do- Uknown
