Compiled by Scott Robertson
As I am wont to do around holidays, I am surrendering this space today to those who are much smarter, brighter and more articulate than I am when it comes to addressing the meaning of the commemoration.
What follows is presented on behalf of all here at News & Neighbor with profound admiration and gratitude to those who, as Lincoln said, gave their last full measure of dedication to this great nation.
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
The dead soldier’s silence sings our national anthem. – Aaron Kilbourn
Soldier, rest! Thy warfare over/
Dream of fighting fields no more:/
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking./
Morn of toil, nor night of waking. – Sir Walter Scott
On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation. – Thomas William Parsons
It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done; it is a far better rest that I go to than I have ever known. – Charles Dickens
They fell, but o’er their glorious grave floats free the banner of the cause they died to save. – Francis Marion Walker
They do not need our praise. They do not need that our admiration should sustain them. There is no immortality that is safer than theirs. We come not for their sakes but for our own, in order that we may drink at the same springs of inspiration from which they themselves drank. – Woodrow Wilson
I die content; I die for the liberty of my country. – Last words of Marshall Lannes
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. – John F. Kennedy
Nothing so much enhances the good than to make sacrifices for it. – George Santayana
He who dies for virtue does not perish. – Plautus
The patriot’s blood is the seed of freedom’s tree. – Thomas Campbell
War is not sparing of the brave. – Anacreon
Self-sacrifice is awful beauty. – Whittier
And they who for their country die/
Shall fill an honored grave/
For glory lights the soldier’s tomb/
And beauty weeps the brave. – J.R. Drake
Our land is the dearer for their sacrifices. The blood of our martyrs sanctifies it and enriches it. Their spirit passes into thousands of hearts. How costly is the progress of the race. It is only by the giving of life that we can have life. – Rev. E. J. Young
What I can do for my country, I am willing to do. – Christopher Gadsden
…We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. 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. – Abraham Lincoln
Who kept the faith and fought the fight; The glory theirs, the duty ours. – Wallace Bruce
For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue. – James Garfield
We come not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them. – Francis Walker
Their sacrifice was great, but not in vain. All Americans and every free nation on earth can trace their liberty to the white markers of places like Arlington National Cemetery. And may God keep us ever grateful. – George W. Bush
