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Veterans Day Quotes

Nothing on this page was written for Veterans Day. It is built from four pages, War, Courage, Patriotism and Gratitude, and the mix is not tidy. The war page contains plenty of writers who hated it, and the patriotism page contains Bertrand Russell remarking in 1962 that patriots talk of dying for their country and never of killing for it.

That makes the page more honest than a greeting card and less convenient. If you need a line of thanks, the gratitude entries are the safest place to look. If you want something that sounds like a speech, read the notes first, because some of the best-known patriotic lines here are flagged as misattributed.

Random quote on Veterans Day

Most quoted on veterans day:

I believe so deeply that the way of war is not the way of Christianity

Emily Greene Balch Letter to President of Wellesley College (1916)

I am not too surprised about myself – some will say I have an audacity of courage.

Bandy Kiki

“We know the feeling of vulnerability. We know what it’s like to live divided and what suffering wars cause."

Katalin Novák

The final resolution must be now taken, either to stop the evil here, or to acquiesce in its progress until it actually brings us to insurrection and civil war.

William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville

I think the solution to our economic wars and challenges as individual African countries is to take this very seriously.

Samia Nkrumah

Life had lost its value in northern Uganda because of this war.

Victoria Nalongo Namusisi Changing the World One Child at a Time — Victoria Nalongo Namusisi (2013)

Our battle [summer]]. May it be our first and our last. So-called. After all, we have not had any of the horrors of war.

Mary Boykin Chesnut

In all, $1 of every $5 the federal government spent in 2011 went to defense, and about 20 cents of that $1 was spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

David Wessel Red Ink: Inside the High-Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget (2012)

From an early age, I learnt to have courage after seeing my community protesting and fighting against apartheid.

Khabonina Qubeka

The need to demilitarize, demobilize, and to have a rehab programme for those who are traumatized by war has not been addressed by the UN-led peace process

Zahra' Langhi

After the Boer War I saw that Boer and Briton would have to unite, but would they try to do it at the cost of their dark brothers

Elizabeth Maria Molteno

Ivankov recruited two brigades... of 250 athletes and... veterans of the Afghan war... to kill his enemies and establish ties...

Craig Unger House Of Trump, House of Putin (2018)

This I believe is the important cornerstone that gave me the courage to follow a career path probably not traditionally set out for women.

Florence Nsubuga

No one can push me out of the BDP and anyone who wages a war against me shall lose!

Mpho Balopi

“As much as I can help it, I don’t engage in word wars.”

Jaya

War and conquests in the twenty-first century suddenly look distressingly primitive… We need a new value system for resolving world conflicts.

Njabulo Ndebele

We did not win the war, but we won the peace; the peace was Codesa.

Ben Turner

Humility, Integrity and Courage are some principles that can take your business far.

Sherifah Tumusiime

I’m just super clear about what I want to do with my voice, and because I have more courage and conviction around it.

Samira Wiley

If we do not want to die together in war, we must learn to live together in peace.

Harry S. Truman

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