102 Memorial Day Quotes to Honor our Fallen Heroes
Memorial Day is a time to pause, reflect, and honor the brave souls who gave their lives for our freedom.
That’s why we’ve gathered all the best Memorial Day quotes to help you remember and pay tribute.
And if you’re looking for short Memorial Day sayings for Instagram, we also have you covered.
Now go ahead and browse through to find your favorite.
Short Memorial Day Quotes
“Dead upon the field of glory, Hero fit for song and story.” – John Randolph Thompson
“War is killing the individual in it unless he has learned livingness if he had it he wouldn’t be a good soldier.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
“No soldier outlives a thousand chances.” – Erich Maria Remarque
“How red the rose that is the soldier’s wound, The wounds of many soldiers, the wounds of all The soldiers that have fallen, red in blood, The soldier of time grown deathless in great size.” – Wallace Stevens
“No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body, to risk his well-being, to risk his life, in a great cause.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“Only lay down true principles, and adhere to them inflexibly.” – Thomas Jefferson
“The freedom which so many Americans have fought for and died for comes with responsibilities as well as rights. And among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism.” – Barack Obama
“Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.” – John Dickinson
“Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, Blossomed by the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“The legacy of brave men and women who have fought and died for their country is the freedom we enjoy as Americans.” – Lucian Adams
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
“Heroism doesn’t always happen in a burst of glory. Sometimes small triumphs and large hearts change the course of history.” – Mary Roach
“Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.” – Napoleon Hill
“Let me ask you, sir, when is the time for brave men to exert themselves in the cause of liberty and their country, if this is not?” – George Washington
“There is one thing that the American people always rise to and extend their hand to and that is the truth of justice, and of liberty, and of peace.” – Woodrow Wilson
“The way to be patriotic in America is not only to love America, but to love the duty that lies nearest to our hand, and to know that in performing it we are serving our country.” – Woodrow Wilson
“You may hate the war, but never hate the ones that fight. For they do not choose when or where to fight. All they chose was to protect who they love and even the people they don’t know.” – Millie
“You have to be a soldier and a veteran, or a soldier who sacrificed your life for your country.” – Rashid Khalidi
“The dead soldier’s silence sings our national anthem.” – Rev. Aaron Kilbourn
“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. For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made.” – James A. Garfield
“May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!” – Daniel Webster
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” – Winston Churchill
“Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.” – Michel de Montaigne
“True patriotism springs from a belief in the dignity of the individual, freedom and equality not only for Americans but for all people on earth, universal brotherhood and good will, and a constant and earnest striving toward the principles and ideals on which this country was founded.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
“A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle, and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.” – George William Curtis
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain
“Courage, dear heart.” – C.S. Lewis
“Who kept the faith and fought the fight; the glory theirs, the duty ours.” – Wallace Bruce
“The more comfort, the less courage there is.” – Aleksandr V. Suvorov
“Every soldier must know, before he goes into battle, how the little battle he is to fight fits into the larger picture, and how the success of his fighting will influence the battle as a whole.” – Bernard Law Montgomery
“Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.” – unknown
“Only the dead have seen the end of war.” – Plato
“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 brave soldiers die. The cowards survive and write the history.” – Ljupka Cvetanova
“Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“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
“Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” – Elmer Davis
“Die in obeying commands like a soldier, and go to Nirvana, but no cowardice.” – Swami Vivekananda
“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” – Joseph Campbell
“One can be a soldier without dying and a lover without sighing.” – Edwin Arnold
“The patriot’s blood is the seed of freedom’s tree” – Thomas Campbell
“The soldier who fights to death never dies, but the soldier who fights for existence never truly exists.” – Yi Sun-sin
“We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them.” – Francis A. Walker
“For love of country, they accepted death.” – James A. Garfield
“On the battlefield, the military pledges to leave no soldier behind. As a nation, let it be our pledge that when they return home, we leave no veteran behind.” – Dan Lipinski
“The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity — unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.” – Henry Clay
“Americans may not only pay tribute to our honored dead but also unite in prayer for success in our search for a just and lasting peace.” – John F. Kennedy, “Prayer for Peace,” Memorial Day 1962
“What’s right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity – intellect and resources – to do something about them.” – Henry Ford
“A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the State with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated by it as enemies.” – Henry David Thoreau
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” – Thomas Paine
“Democracy is never a final achievement. It is a call to an untiring effort.” – John F. Kennedy
“Unless our conception of patriotism is progressive, it cannot hope to embody the real affection and the real interest of the nation.” – Jane Addams
“I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American!” – Daniel Webster
“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
“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” – Edward Abbey
“The great end of all human industry, is the attainment of happiness. For this were arts invented, sciences cultivated, laws ordained, and societies modelled, by the most profound wisdom of patriots and legislators.” – David Hume
“In valor there is hope.” – Tacitus
“No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.” – Douglas MacArthur
“A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” – Bob Dylan
“The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“The woman and the soldier who do not defend the first pass will never defend the last.” – Henry Fielding
“They are dead; but they live in each Patriot’s breast, And their names are engraven on honor’s bright crest.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Soldiers are citizens of death’s grey land, drawing no dividend from time’s tomorrows.” – Siegfried Sassoon
“The soldiers that didn’t come back were the heroes. It’s a roll of the dice. If a bullet has your name on it, you’re a hero. If you hear a bullet go by, you’re a survivor.” – Bob Feller
“Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.” – Bob Marley
“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 brave die never, though they sleep in dust: Their courage nerves a thousand living men.” – Minot J. Savage
“Soldiers willingly, sometimes foolishly, risk their own lives to keep their comrades out of enemy hands.” – Alex Berenson
“History is a people’s memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals.” – Malcolm X
Fallen Soldier Quotes
“ghosts of fallen soldiers. Personal resurrection prefigures the more general mission of the fallen to redeem the nation.” – George L. Mosse
“The intimate connection between the fallen soldier and Christ himself is written large on the iconography of the war.” – George L. Mosse
“The painting depicts a fallen soldier literally sleeping in the lap of Christ. Through its fallen the nation was associated with the Passion of Christ, and at times the story of Christ’s life itself was projected onto the nation.” – George L. Mosse
“At a local celebration of the Volkstrauertag (Memorial Day) in 1926 a play was performed in which a man is caught in a web of greed, disloyalty, and hate until a fallen soldier rises from the grave and redeems him.” – George L. Mosse
“The war cemetery was central to the cult of the fallen soldier. A new type of cemetery had developed by the first decade of the nineteenth century.” – George L. Mosse
“We bring the fallen soldier from cold storage and place him or her in the coffin. Then the coffin is closed and sealed. I can’t explain why I want to be present but I just feel that we owe it to our boys and girls to do it properly. They have, after all, made the ultimate sacrifice, he says.” – Jan Grarup
“A lot of thoughts go through your mind, but it’s actually very calm and quiet. No one says a word and everyone knows what to do. I always want to make sure the fallen soldiers receives the proper treatment, he explains.” – Jan Grarup
“This is the part of the poem that Peter will read as the coffin with the fallen soldier is carried on board the aircraft. He has the same words tattooed on the right side of his torso.” – Jan Grarup
“A fallen soldier’s tear our nation’s greatest treasure, aligned in perfect rows. The hopes and dreams and life unlived, which we shall never know. The painful price of freedom – A life that’s swept away. Defending life and liberty, the highest price they pay.” – Randal S. Doaty
“He reminded the crowd of Governor Curtin’s promises to Pennsylvania regiments to care for the widows and orphans of her fallen soldiers. The Homestead, Hay declared, was one of the fulfillments of that pledge.” – Mark H. Dunkelman
“The orphanage was flourishing when the Humistons left it; a well-run, financially secure, highly regarded facet of the Gettysburg community, sustaining scores of the offspring of the nation’s fallen soldiers – which made it all the sadder when, within years after the Humistons departed, dastardly deeds and deceit brought the orphanage to a disgraceful demise.” – Mark H. Dunkelman
“At that moment, dear soldiers, out of the camp rose the reverent sounds of our anthem Preserve For Us, Lord, which carried mightily and nobly down the battlefield. The fallen soldier, parting with his life, tried to pull himself together one more time.” – Jaroslav Hasek
“Every pain and especial care is taken in the burial of the poor fallen soldier at this place. His grave is marked with his name, regiment, company, were killed, or when and where wounded or sickened, and died.” – Timothy J. Orr
“The relatives (generally the families but sometimes also friends) of many fallen soldiers placed on the tombstones and in their surroundings various articles – beginning with planters (and developing the garden around the tombstone), following with passages of writing and poetry and culminating with arms paraphernalia and sometimes the picture of a fallen soldier – articles that one can define using the general terms embelishments.” – Yossi Katz
“The focus of these events in honour of the dead are memorial services or masses for the fallen soldier; the memorial sarcophagus (Tumba) is decked in black and decorated with flowers. Numerous candles burn at its side, a steel helmet and crossed side arms lie on it.” – Martyn Housden
“Or instead of this, a symbolic soldier’s grave is set up in the church and is richly covered with flowers, a birch cross and a steel helmet or an Iron Cross. The cultish proceedings make special use of choirs and orchestral pieces, processions of children and poetry readings.” – Martyn Housden
“Occasionally a side altar is transformed into an altar to the fallen soldier. Under flowers and burning candles, pictures of the fallen together with their names and their military decorations are set up. Relatives and the population (in general) can bury themselves in the memory of the fallen at any hour of the day.” – Martyn Housden
“Without delaying an instant, Huang reached down and snatched up the fallen soldier’s bayoneted rifle, yanking it off the man’s shoulder, and then swung around to train the rifle’s barrel on the soldiers stills standing.” – Chris Roberson
“Similarly, they knew that if they were to fall in action they would receive a proper burial and their bodies would not be left on the battlefield. Indeed, during the war we launch a number of raids so as to retrieve the bodies of our dear fallen soldiers.” – Raful Eitan
“The bodies of fallen soldiers are dragged back in those sleeping bags. You know you are sleeping with the blood of a fellow soldier who died with honor, fighting for his country. For some reason that makes their blood okay, besides, a bloody sleeping bag is better than no sleeping bag at all.” – Thomas D. O’Dell
“No matter how sick you were, when you saw a fallen soldier slaughtered in cold blood, it gave you fresh energy to go on a little farther.” – Franky T. Respicio
“If anyone tried to help a fallen soldier, they were beaten and killed too. I thought it would have been much better for those who died this way to have been shot.” – Franky T. Respicio
“In a distant field grows a rose, it’s beauty, from the ground which it owes, the rose sways with a gentle class, in the wind that blows across the grass, before long, war comes to this land, booms are heard as if from a band, a fallen soldier reaches for the rose, with his blood soaked hand, shaking with dread he uproots the rose from it’s soil bed, with cries of pain, he kisses the rose.” – Peter Murray
“The family of every fallen soldier feels this need—creating a memorial to a son who fell in battle is an integral part of how parents and siblings cope with their overwhelming sorrow. It is also an important part of the way that the society that sent the soldier into battle constructs its communal ethos.” – Tuvia Friling
“While he did not want, God forbid, to say anything bad about the project, Rembah noted that not every fallen soldier who had left behind literary or artistic works.” – Tuvia Friling
“They did all they could to ensure that he would not get any of the honor accorded to the fallen soldiers of Israel’s War of Independence.” – Tuvia Friling
“The fallen soldier (the word “hero” appears to be a later invention) has such humble honors as it is possible to give. His part in all the pomp that fills The circuit of the Summer hills Is that his grave is green. True, more than a half of the green graves in the Grafton cemetery are marked unknown, and sometimes it occurs that one thinks of the contradiction involved in honoring the memory of whom no memory remains to honor, but the attempt seems to do no great harm to the living, even to the logical.” – Ambrose Bierce
“I still cry every time they have an In Memory of a fallen soldier. … My breaking point was when I heard the story of the young soldier that gave up his life to actually SIT on a grenade that had fallen into his Hummer to save his fellow soldiers.” – Elizabeth Cook
“Myths of fallen soldiers exercise a powerful hold over collective memory in the twentieth century, especially in the case of national groups in whose name the wars are usually waged. They acquire the extra and hallowed dimension of a foundation myth in the case of those wars of liberation that result in the creation of a nation state.” – Jonathan Frankel
“The unintended consequence of these myriad initiatives has been to implant an entire generation in the collective memory. This process has been much reinforced by the fact that in many social circles the bereaved parents, their lives often shattered, remained as a central presence to represent the generation of the fallen soldiers.” – Jonathan Frankel
“I saw one soldier fall, and three fighters plunged from their horses and clubbed and slashed at him. Our squadron … He reached a hand down to the fallen soldier, shouting, “Give me an arm,” and pulled the other man up behind him. A ripping whistle zipped past again followed by a muffled boom from down toward the river and someone shouted.” – Michael McEwen Randall
“The next insurgent in the group raced past his comrade, who was working quickly to confirm the fallen soldier’s vitals, but as he was nearing the balcony inside the chamber, another sentry (who had just witnessed his friend’s death and had since quickly prepared himself for battle) spun around the corner toward the insurgent, swinging a knife backhanded in his right toward the insurgent’s neck.” – K. J. Stinnet
So that is it for our list of Memorial Day Quotes and Sayings.
We hope you found the perfect one to honor the brave souls who have sacrificed for our freedom.
