Veterans Day Quotes

No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck. ~ Erich Maria Remarque

The precondition to freedom is security. ~ Rand Beers

As a 22-year Army Veteran who served in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, and as a Civilian Advisor to the Afghan Army in Operation Enduring Freedom, I understand both the gravity of giving the order, and the challenge of carrying it out. ~ Allen West

Serving my country was a life-changing experience for me. It was during those years that I realized the importance of commitment, dedication, honor, and discipline. I have never laughed so much; nor have I ever prayed so much. I made life-long friends. The leaders and heroes I served with helped shape me into the man I am today. I feel honored to have been a part of such a great tradition and grateful to others who have walked the same path. Thank you! ~ Steve Maraboli

When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death - that is heroism. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

The 2.4 million bright, brave, incredibly fit and remarkably talented young Americans who have served in our armed forces since we were attacked on 9-11-01 are all volunteers. As General Petraeus put it during a conversation we had in Afghanistan, 'They all came or stayed, knowing they were going to war.' For more than a decade, these patriots and their loved ones have made extraordinary sacrifices for this country. They embody the classical definition of heroes: those who put themselves at risk for the benefit of others. ~ Oliver North

I am not a hero but the brave men who died deserved this honor. ~ Ira Hayes

War should never be thought of as something autonomous, but always as an instrument of policy. ~ Carl Von Clausewitz

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

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

In all cultures, ceremonies are designed to communicate the experience of one group of people to the wider community. When people bury loved ones, when they wed, when they graduate from college, the respective ceremonies communicate something essential to the people who are watching... if contemporary America doesn't develop ways to publicly confront the emotional consequences of war those consequences will continue to burn a hole through the vets themselves... ...Offer veterans all over the country the use of their town hall every Veteran's Day to speak freely about their experience at war... A community ceremony like that would finally return the experience of war to our entire nation, rather than just leaving it to the people who fought. The bland phrase "I support the troops" would then mean showing up at the town hall once a year to hear these people out. ~ Sebastian Junger

To sacrifice anything is of great honor. To sacrifice everything is of God. ~ Todd Stocker

One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are. ~ Walter Isaacson

In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans' organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

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

Lord, bid war's trumpet cease; Fold the whole earth in peace. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

It is regrettable that Senator Kennedy has chosen Veteran's Day to continue leveling baseless and false attacks that send the wrong signal to our troops and our enemy during a time of war. It is also regrettable that Senator Kennedy has found more time to say negative things about President Bush then he ever did about Saddam Hussein. If America were to follow Senator Kennedy's foreign policy, Saddam Hussein would not only still be in power, he would be oppressing and occupying Kuwait. ~ Scott McClellan

I'll tell you what I'm fighting for. Not for England, nor her allies, nor any patriotic cause. It's all come down to the hope of being with you.. ~ Lisa Kleypas

As a former veteran, I understand the needs of veterans, and have been clear - we will work together, stand together with the Administration, but we will also question their policies when they shortchange veterans and military retirees. ~ Solomon Ortiz

The guts carry the feet, not the feet the guts. ~ Miguel De Cervantes

That was not the biggest battle that ever was, but for me it always typified one thing; the dash, the ingenuity, the readiness at the first opportunity that characterizes the American soldier. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

The most certain way of ensuring victory is to march briskly and in good order against the enemy, always endeavouring to gain ground. ~ Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Today is Veterans Day. Thank you to all our men and women who have served the United States armed forces. In honor of Veterans Day we are marching out a few jokes that have already served. ~ David Letterman

On Veterans Day, I can't help think of my uncles who volunteered for the service after fleeing a brutal regime in the Dominican Republic. They hadn't been in America long, but they were already so grateful for its opportunities that they were eager to serve. ~ Thomas Perez

In the battlefield men grapple each other and die;
The horses of the vanquished utter lamentable cries to heaven,
While ravens and kites peck at human entrails,
Carry them up in their flight, and hang them on the branches of dead trees. ~ Li Bai

The sanctity of our battlefields, monuments, and veterans institutions is of utmost importance to preserve military history and pay respect to those who fought. ~ Henry Waxman

America's trying to do the best for its veterans. ~ R. Lee Ermey

Brave men are all vertebrates; they have their softness on the surface and their toughness in the middle. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

I'm trying to raise the awareness of the troops that, when they deploy and go to war, it's not just them at war - it's also their family. Their family is having to go through all the hardships and the stresses. ~ Chris Kyle

It is Veterans Day, when we honor everyone who served in all of the campaigns. We honor them with dignity and respect, and of course mattress sales and tire discounts. ~ Craig Ferguson

Now the true soldiers of Christ must always be prepared to do battle for the truth, and must never, so far as lies with them, allow false convictions to creep in. ~ Origen

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. ~ John McCrae

It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. ~ Zell Miller

Armistice Day has become Veterans' Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans' Day is not.
So I will throw Veterans' Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.
What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.
And all music is. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

But this Veterans Day, I believe we should do more than sing the praises of the bravery and patriotism that our veterans have embodied in the past. We should take this opportunity to re-evaluate how we are treating our veterans in the present. ~ Nick Lampson

On Veterans Day, we take time to honor those men and women who bravely serve and have served our nation in the U.S. Armed Forces. ~ Todd Tiahrt

It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf

I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,
And the white skeletons of young men-I saw them;
I saw the debris and debris of all the dead soldiers of the war;
But I saw they were not as was thought;
They themselves were fully at rest-they suffer'd not;
The living remain'd and suffer'd-the mother suffer'd,
And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suffer'd,
And the armies that remain'd suffer'd. ~ Walt Whitman

Congress should stop treating veterans like they're asking for a hand out when it comes to the benefits they were promised, and they should realize that, were it not for these veterans, there would be nothing to hand out. ~ Nick Lampson

The thing is this: You got to have fun while you're fightin' for freedom, 'cause you don't always win. ~ Molly Ivins

We sit at our consoles and play "Gears of War", but we don't see images from war. We don't turn on the news and see the evidence of war, the result of war. Maybe twice a year, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, we'll go out, we'll hang our flags, we'll try to inculcate in our children some sense of national honor for the fallen. But really, we don't see it. We just don't see the pictures. There's no drive-by on the freeway of death up close. So we don't really see bravery. ~ Jamie Lee Curtis

Valor is a gift. Those having it never know for sure whether they have it till the test comes. And those having it in one test never know for sure if they will have it when the next test comes. ~ Carl Sandburg

While only one day of the year is dedicated solely to honoring our veterans, Americans must never forget the sacrifices that many of our fellow countrymen have made to defend our country and protect our freedoms. ~ Randy Neugebauer

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn saw sunset glow
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields
Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you, from falling hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. ~ John McCrae

I was there. I saw your sons and your husbands, your brothers and your sweethearts. I saw how they worked, played, fought, and lived. I saw some of them die. I saw more courage, more good humor in the face of discomfort, more love in an era of hate and more devotion to duty than could exist under tyranny. ~ Bob Hope

The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below ~ John McCrae

Our soldiers have nobly fought to protect freedom since our country's birth, and have fought to protect those that could not protect themselves, even in foreign lands when called upon. ~ John Linder

Spending time with America's soldiers is always inspiring. ~ John Boehner

The only thing that makes battle psychologically tolerable is the brotherhood among soldiers. You need each other to get by. ~ Sebastian Junger

Well, look at what people are doing for returned veterans now. The wounded warriors. They're working hard to make the wounded veterans feel that they are loved and welcomed home, unlike Vietnam. It was not a very kind, gentle world then. I think we are kinder and gentler. ~ Barbara Bush

A few honest men are better than numbers. ~ Oliver Cromwell

Either war is obsolete, or men are. ~ R. Buckminster Fuller

We have met the enemy and they are ours. ~ Oliver Hazard Perry

Those who cannot bravely face danger are
the slaves of their attackers. ~ Aristotle.

If anyone, then, asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to him - it means just what Concord and Lexington meant; what Bunker Hill meant; which was, in short, the rising up of a valiant young people against an old tyranny to establish the most momentous doctrine that the world had ever known - the right of men to their own selves and to their liberties. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom! ~ Mel Gibson

I want you to know, that you deserve the best. You're beautiful. ~ Lil' Wayne

Courage in danger is half the battle. ~ Plautus

Caring for veterans shouldn't be a partisan issue. It should an American one. ~ Jennifer Granholm

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. ~ Laurence Binyon

I have left orders to be awakened at any time during national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting. ~ Ronald Reagan

Every star in the universe represents a soul of a soldier who gave his life for the life you live today. ~ Giovannie De Sadeleer

On this Veterans Day, let us remember the service of our veterans, and let us renew our national promise to fulfill our sacred obligations to our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much so that we can live free. ~ Dan Lipinski

Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

The U.S. Military is us. There is no truer representation of a country than the people that it sends into the field to fight for it. The people who wear our uniform and carry our rifles into combat are our kids, and our job is to support them, because they're protecting us. ~ Tom Clancy

I go where the sound of thunder is. ~ Alfred M. Gray

Because all of us believe and understand in the fabric of the common bond of why we call ourselves American is to care for the men and women who wear the uniform; and when they take off the uniform, we care for them when they are veterans. ~ Steve Buyer

Soldiers, when committed to a task, can't compromise. It's unrelenting devotion to the standards of duty and courage, absolute loyalty to others, not letting the task go until it's been done. ~ John Keegan

I'm going to make myself a promise right here and now. In Johnny's honor. I promise to live each day to the fullest. I promise to listen to my heart and then work through my fears to follow it. I promise to realize what my dreams are then take the steps necessary to make them a reality. I promise to be trut to me. Not what someone else wants me to be, but what I want. ~ J. Sterling

They'd eaten every meal outdoors, hard-boiled eggs and cheese from a picnic basket, and drunk wine under the lilac tree in the walled garden. They'd disappeared inside the woods, and stolen apples from the farm next door, and floated down the stream in her little boat as one silken hour spun itself into the next. On a clear, still night, they'd dug the old bicycles out of the shed and cycled together along the dusty lane, racing, laughing, breathing in salt from the warm air as moonlight made the stones, still hot from the day, shine lustrous white. ~ Kate Morton

Falling in love feels like jumping out of a plane without a parachute and somehow landing safely and then wanting to do it again the next day. ~ Victoria Denault

I would make the tea on a Daniel Day-Lewis set just to observe how he crafts roles like he did in 'My Left Foot.' That was the equivalent of seeing Haley's Comet for me. I just couldn't understand how that was possible. ~ David Oyelowo

An Exhortation

Chameleons feed on light and air:
Poets' food is love and fame:
If in this wide world of care
Poets could but find the same
With as little toil as they,
Would they ever change their hue
As the light chameleons do,
Suiting it to every ray
Twenty times a day?

Poets are on this cold earth,
As chameleons might be,
Hidden from their early birth
In a cave beneath the sea;
Where light is, chameleons change:
Where love is not, poets do:
Fame is love disguised: if few
Find either, never think it strange
That poets range.

Yet dare not stain with wealth or power
A poet's free and heavenly mind:
If bright chameleons should devour
Any food but beams and wind,
They would grow as earthly soon
As their brother lizards are.
Children of a sunnier star,
Spirits from beyond the moon,
O, refuse the boon! ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

We are human beings. We cannot exist without relationship. It is the most important thing in life. And in that relationship, which is based on imagebuilding, you have an image about her and she has an image about you because you have both lived together for twenty years, for ten days, or one day. You have already created an image. And those images have relationship. If I have a wife, I have lived with her sexually, she has nagged me, I have bullied her, I possess her and she likes being possessed. So I have created an image about her, and she has created an image about me. And our relationship is based on those images.

When there are images built by thought, built by various experiences and incidents translated by thought and retained as memory, how can there be love? You may love your God - but you don't. You may love your scriptures through fear because you want to be saved. But where there is fear, there is no love. So the question arises whether it is possible not to create images. You have an image about yourself. Most people have images, but the most intimate image is between you and your wife, or between you and your husband, or your girlfriend. The root of conflict is there. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Some day I will be better remembered. ~ Grover Cleveland

And he wanted us to call him Twilight.

I was too tired and melancholy to truly feel the level of bafflement this request deserved. However, I did notice the initial exchange between my brother and Isaac/Twilight when they arrived with Tina's momma. It went something like this:

Jackson: "Tina. I didn't know you were bringing Isaac. Good to see you, man."

Isaac/Twilight: "It's Twilight."

Jackson (looking bemused): "No it ain't, it's not even noon yet."

Isaac/Twilight: "No. My name is Twilight."

Jackson (still looking bemused): "Say what?"

Isaac/Twilight: "My name. Call me Twilight."

Jackson: "You mean like that My Little Pony character?"

Tina: "Jackson! I didn't know you were a My Little Pony fan."

Jackson (scowling then motioning to Isaac/Twilight): "Jessica was always watching it growing up, and I'm not a fan - not like Twilight Sparkle over here."

Isaac/Twilight: "The name is Twilight, not Twilight Sparkle."

Jackson (irritated): "If you want me to call you Twilight, then don't be surprised if I slip up a few times and call you Pinky Pie."

A similar conversation ensued when Twilight was brought in to greet my dad, except my dad said, "That's not a name, son. That's a time of day. ~ Penny Reid

Sure, occasionally a certain sappy song or romantic movie would come on, and you'd wonder what he or she was up to, but there was no way to know. Of course, you could always pick up the phone (and more recently, text or e-mail), but that would require that person's knowing you were thinking of him or her. Where's the fun in that? You never want them to know you're thinking of them, so you refrain. Before long the memories start to fade. One day, you realize you can't quite remember how she smelled or the exact color of his eyes. Eventually, without ever knowing it, you just forget that person altogether. You replace old memories with new ones, and life goes on. It was the clean break you needed to move forward. ~ Brandi Glanville

Winning is an abstract concept. There is no winning in real life. Winning is just a device for storytellers to conveniently end a tale, but everyone knows that real stories - real lives - only end in death. But the dead don't win anything except the release from the never-ending game, the never-ending race. There is no winning, but that doesn't mean you have to lose. You can't lose if you refuse to play, if you refuse to fight, if you refuse the race the sun day after day. Don't surrender, because to surrender is to lose. Don't give up, because to give up is to lose. When you refuse to fight, there is no surrender. When you refuse to race the sun, you can finally stop to appreciate the light it brings to the earth each and every day. ~ Ilia Bera

The sun tapped at the window pane, softly but firmly he was calling my name. He said rise, let me place this crown upon your head. I said, it's the weekend everybody's still in bed. This isn't for them, the sun made himself clear. Do you understand, LaNina, or should I call you Lear? I'm up, I replied throwing my diamond in the sky. Through the all seeing eye, he re-energized my life. Now you're, ready, the sun said, as I no longer felt heavy. It's time to hustle, LaNina, I mean Lear, you know this grind stays steady. I know, I remarked soaking up the energy from the sun. Lightly lifted from the ground, closed my eyes, stretched my arms until my refill was done. Let's get it, I yelled as my feet touched the floor. The sun said, wait, I'm going to fill you with more. I gave thanks for the new day & love for God from the core. I'm ready, I said while the sun filled me. I opened my eyes to a different side of life, but much better I could see. I'm free. He said, go ahead but work with you isn't done. I know. However, it was a pleasure coming face to face with 'The Son'. ~ LaNina King

I feel sorry for people that don't drink, because when they wake up in the morning, that is the best they are going to feel all day- ~ Frank Sinatra

You can always look back on having a good defensive day, even if you didn't do anything offensively. You won the game and you contributed. ~ Jorge Posada

He did the unforgivable and said the unthinkable. He broke me from the inside out and left me to pick up the pieces on my own. I'm not sure I even got all the pieces. Since that day, I've felt emotionally wrecked with uncleaned wounds and safety pins holding together my tattered heart. ~ Jewel E. Ann

I love everything. I don't see myself doing a really serious drama in the next five to ten years. I don't feel mature enough for that yet. But I'd like to make a pure action movie one day or maybe I can do a comedy again. I do like everything. But I don't feel ready for a musical or something like that. That's not my thing yet. ~ Tommy Wirkola

Tom had nearly bit his tongue off trying not to goad Prophet into further insults, which probably annoyed Prophet more than anything. Tom couldn't figure out if the guy was doing it to purposely bug the shit out of him, or if this was simply how he operated on a day-to-day basis. It was like trying to balance in quicksand - in the end, it was easier to give up and let yourself get pulled under. ~ S.E. Jakes

I always say I'm Catholic - but a cultural Catholic. I wouldn't say I'm a spiritual person, although I pray every day. ~ Kiki Smith

Clouds are the most transient of nature's creations. They come out of a clear sky, disintegrate before your eyes, vanish. You never see the same cloud twice. Every moment of its brief existence brings a change, a change of form or tint or texture; but its beauty remains constant to the end. The beauty of the clouds is there for us to see every day, if we are not too busy to look up.... ~ Alfred Wainwright

It wasn't every day a girl lost her virginity, not to mention to a delicious, perfect specimen of man. One who had wings, to boot. ~ Rosalie Lario

If a person leads an 'active' life, as Wiggs had, if a person has goals, ideals, a cause to fight for, then that person is distracted, temporarily, from paying a whole lot of attention to the heavy scimitar that hangs by a mouse hair just about his or her head. We, each of us, have a ticket to ride, and if the trip be interesting (if it's dull, we have only ourselves to blame), then we relish the landscape (how quickly it whizzes by!), interact with our fellow travelers, pay frequent visits to the washrooms and concession stands, and hardly ever hold up the ticket to the light where we can read its plainly stated destination: The Abyss.
Yet, ignore it though we might in our daily toss and tussle, the fact of our impending death is always there, just behind the draperies, or, more accurately, inside our sock, like a burr that we can never quite extract. If one has a religious life, one can rationalize one's slide into the abyss; if one has a sense of humor (and a sense of humor, properly developed, is superior to any religion so far devised), one can minimalize it through irony and wit. Ah, but the specter is there, night and day, day in and day out, coloring with its chalk of gray almost everything we do. And a lot of what we do is done, subconsciously, indirectly, to avoid the thought of death, or to make ourselves so unexpendable through our accomplishments that death will hesitate to take us, or, when the scimitar finally falls, to insure that we 'live on' in the mem ~ Tom Robbins

I have a rule: Anything that can be done privately does not need to be performed publicly. It's why I love the gays but I hate their parades. Actually, I hate all parades. Marching to celebrate something you're born as seems silly. (As I write this, St. Patrick's Day is in full bore in Midtown. It's delightful how celebrating a heritage requires you to pick fights with strangers and then pee in a parking garage. The upside - the sea of clover-painted drunks moving in unison - might be the only green energy I've ever seen work.) And what's the point of a parade anyway? A bunch of yahoos who share some affinity, walking in one direction? Who decided this was entertainment? For previous generations, this was called a migration, or more often, refugees fleeing for their lives ~ Greg Gutfeld

I'd say without a doubt I've had the most sex scenes in any television show, ever. Last season I did eight sex scenes in one day - I haven't topped that yet. ~ Julian McMahon

It's not physical weight which stops us from moving forward in life. It's the mental baggage we carry all day long which sabotages our success and happiness. ~ Maddy Malhotra

They know they're supposed to do something, but they're not sure what. And you know what they do when they're not sure
of course you do: They either do the wrong thing or they do nothing, and it's a toss up as to which is worse. ~ Jill Conner Browne

The best anti-aging advice I've ever received? Drink a lot of water and have a plant-based diet. I also do mindful meditation with my daughter every day. It takes ten minutes. I think reducing stress plays a big part in anti-aging. ~ Carolyn Murphy

But Margaret was at an age when any apprehension, not absolutely based on a knowledge of facts, is easily banished for a time by a bright sunny day, or some happy outward circumstance. And when the brilliant fourteen fine days of October came on, her cares were all blown away as lightly as thistledown, and she thought of nothing but the glories of the forest. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell

Above all, do not loose your desire to walk. Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. ~ Soren Kierkegaard

And for every day you paint the war, take a week and paint the beauty, the color, the shape of the landscape you're marching towards. Everyone knows what you're against; show them what you're for. ~ Andrea Gibson

When they killed my family, they may as well have killed me, Hayden. I was fourteen when I killed my first man. I wasn't even of age. All I could think about was what he had done to my mother, my father, my sister and my brother. That was all I could see. Luke found out who they were and we took care of them. I spent the next sixteen years doint the same thing. I don't think I was alive. I died that night.
"I never worried going into battles. I never cared what would happen if I jumped into an ambush. How could I die if I was already dead?"
I reached back and pulled his head down so that it was against mine. His arms tightened around me.
"But then one day, I looked down a hill and saw this most beautiful woman. I looked into those unbelievable eyes and my heart jumped. When you kissed me by the lake it started to beat again. You're the one who brought me back to life, Hayden, and now that I'm alive again, I'm terrified. ~ Mireille Chester

One day I said to my dad, 'Are you disappointed that I'm working a minimum-wage job and I didn't go to college?' I'll never forget his response. He said, 'It's not about how much money you make or what your job is, but it's more about your character. For that, I'm proud of you.' ~ Josh Dun

Introduction to Jane. - Jane removed the last of the unfamiliar, silk bra-cup pads and panty liners from within the clothes she was unpacking and placed them in her top lingerie drawer. Her discovery of their illicit presence was a bombshell with which her disbelief was still struggling. The shock was enough for her to call the office, cancel her appointments and tell the studio she would be off all day. ~ Francine Scott

I loved her every minute of every day, heart and mind and soul and all of it, and it was getting late and I wanted the place never to close, never. ~ Donna Tartt