Honor the sacrifice of our heroic fallen with these Memorial Day quotes
80 Memorial Day Quotes to Share in Honor and Remembrance
Updated on Apr. 09, 2025
Memorial Day quotes about heroism
1. “A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom.” —Bob Dylan
2. “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” —Maya Angelou
3. “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
4. “We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage.” —Theodore Roosevelt
5. “Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay.” —Barack Obama
6. “I have long believed that sacrifice is the pinnacle of patriotism.” —Bob Riley
7. “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt
8. “Heroism doesn’t always happen in a burst of glory. Sometimes small triumphs and large hearts change the course of history.” —Mary Roach
9. “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” —Joseph Campbell
10. “Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.” —Napoleon Hill
11. “The willingness of America’s veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude.” —Jeff Miller
12. “As we set today aside to honor and thank our veterans, let us be mindful that we should do this every day of the year and not just one.” —Beth Pennington
13. “Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.” —Calvin Coolidge
14. “If words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.” —Ronald Reagan
15. “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
16. “All gave some. Some gave all.” —Howard William Osterkamp
17. “For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.” —James A. Garfield
18. “A nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.” —Abraham Lincoln
19. “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” —George S. Patton
20. “There is nothing nobler than risking your life for your country.” —Nick Lampson
21. “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” —Plato
22. “They fell, but o’er their glorious grave floats free the banner of the cause they died to save.” —Francis Marion Crawford
23. “Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” —Adlai Stevenson II
24. “The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.” —Calvin Coolidge
25. “We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them.” —Francis A. Walker
26. “A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
27. “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” —James Allen
28. “True patriotism isn’t cheap. It’s about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.” —Robert Reich
29. “In the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.” —Barack Obama
Memorial Day quotes about remembrance
30. “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” —John F. Kennedy
31. “Think about the past and consider the sacrifices men and women in the military have made for us.” —Gary G. Wetzel
32. “Your memory feels like home to me. So whenever my mind wanders, it always finds its way back to you.” —Ranata Suzuki
33. “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” —Thomas Campbell
34. “The wind is us—it gathers and remembers all our voices, then send them talking and telling through the leaves and the fields.” ―Truman Capote
35. “One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.”―Antonio Porchia
36. “The legacy of heroes—the memory of a great name, and the inheritance of a great example.” —Benjamin Disraeli
37. “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
38. “Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.” —Emily Dickinson
39. “So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.” —Helen Keller
40. “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
Memorial Day quotes about freedom
41. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” —Thomas Jefferson
42. “It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.” —Charles M. Province
43. “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” —Thomas Paine
44. “The patriot’s blood is the seed of freedom’s tree.” —Thomas Campbell
45. “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
46. “Veterans are a symbol of what makes our nation great, and we must never forget all they have done to ensure our freedom.” —Rodney Frelinghuysen
47. “I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free … so other people would be also free.” —Rosa Parks
48. “This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” —Elmer Davis
49. “I had reasoned this out in my mind: There was one of two things I had a right to—liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other.” —Harriet Tubman
50. “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
51. “No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.” —General Douglas MacArthur
Memorial Day quotes about America
52. “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” —John F. Kennedy
53. “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 Baldwin
54. “Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.” —Charles de Gaulle
55. “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
56. “Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.” —John Adams
57. “America without her soldiers would be like God without his angels.” —Claudia Pemberton
58. “America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” —Harry S. Truman
59. “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.” —William J. Clinton
Memorial day quotes about courage
60. “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” —Billy Graham
61. “Here men endured that a nation might live.” —Herbert Hoover
62. “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
63. “Without a sign his sword the brave man draws and asks no omen but his country’s cause.” —Homer
64. “Honor to the Soldier, and Sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country’s cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field, and serves, as best he can, the same cause—honor to him, less only than to him, who braves, for the common good, the storms of heaven and the storms of battle.” —Abraham Lincoln
65. “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 M. Granholm
66. “You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.” —Aristotle
67. “Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.” —George Washington
68. “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” —Mark Twain
69. “Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just one step at a time.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
70. “Never was so much owed by so many to so few.” —Winston Churchill
71. “Scared is what you’re feeling. Brave is what you’re doing.” —Emma Donoghue
72. “Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.” —Colonel David Hackworth
73. “The brave die never, though they sleep in dust, their courage nerves a thousand living men.” —Minot J. Savage
74. “Who kept the faith and fought the fight; The glory theirs, the duty ours.” —Wallace Bruce
75. “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
76. “Let their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.” —Daniel Webster
77. “The legacy of brave men and women who have fought and died for their country is the freedom we enjoy as Americans.” –Lucian Adams
78. “In valor there is hope.” —Tacitus
79. “What I can do for my country, I am willing to do.” —Christopher Gadsen
80. “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.” —G.K. Chesterton
Now that you’ve gone through these Memorial Day quotes, learn the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day (if you don’t already know, you’re not alone).
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Additional reporting by Molly Pennington, PhD.
