“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth..”
— President Abraham Lincoln, from The Gettysburg Address.
“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
“The dead soldier’s silence sings our national anthem.”
— Aaron Kilbourn
“As I approach the gates of heaven;
St. Peter I will tell;
One more soldier reporting sir;
I’ve served my time in hell.”
— Mark Anthony Gresswell
“A nation that does not honor its heroes, will not long endure.”
— President Abraham Lincoln
“They died so that we could have a better future. Let’s make sure we live up to that wish.”
— Dr. Jess Richana
“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).
“These brave men and women fought for peace and paid the ultimate price. Their burden lifted, it is now our task to not add more gravestones to the fields they consecrated with their blood.”
— Anonymous
“Heroism is latent in every human soul. However humble or unknown, they [the veterans] have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all the self-denials — privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life-long hurts and losses, death itself — for some great good, dimly seen but dearly held.”
— Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
— President John F. Kennedy
“The cost of liberty is less than the cost of repression.”
— W.E.B. Du Bois
“The secret of Happiness is Freedom, and the secret of Freedom, Courage.”
— Thucydides
“In valor there is hope.”
— Publius Cornelius Tacitus
