Skip to content

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:

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "Thank You," that would suffice.

Meister Eckhart Disputed

The patriot volunteer, fighting for country and his rights, makes the most reliable soldier on earth.

Stonewall Jackson Attributed

Put none but Americans on guard tonight.

George Washington Attributed

The sword is the key of heaven and hell.

Muhammad Attributed

Wars are God's way of teaching Americans geography.

Ambrose Bierce Attributed

To preserve the life of citizens, is the greatest virtue in the father of his country.

Seneca the Younger Misattributed

For those that run away, and fly,
Take place at least o’ th’ enemy.

Samuel Butler Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

In all the trade of war, no feat
Is nobler than a brave retreat.

Samuel Butler Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village, stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against each other.

Thomas Carlyle Attributed

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

Plato Misattributed

Bloody wars at first began,
The artificial plague of man,
That from his own invention rise,
To scourge his own iniquities.

Samuel Butler Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

We can set our deeds to the music of a grateful heart, and seek to round our lives into a hymn — the melody of which will be recognized by all who come in contact with us, and the power of which shall not be evanescent, like the voice of the singer, but perenninal, like the music of the spheres.

William Mackergo Taylor Attributed Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

There’s but the twinkling of a star
Between a man of peace and war;
A thief and justice, fool and knave,
A huffing off’cer and a slave;
A crafty lawyer and a pickpocket,
A great philosopher and a blockhead;
A formal preacher and a player,
A learn’d physician and man-slayer.

Samuel Butler Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

We should provide in peace what we need in war.

Publilius Syrus Disputed

You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.

Malcolm X Attributed

They were stronger than Turk and Saracen, but not than Hunger and Disease. Leaders did not know then, as our little Friend at Berlin came to know, that “an Army, like a serpent, goes upon its belly."

Frederick II of Prussia Attributed

If we can effectively kill the national pride and patriotism of just one generation, we will have won that country. Therefore we must continue propaganda abroad to undermine the loyalty of citizens in general and of teen-agers in particular.

Lavrentiy Beria Misattributed

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

Samuel Johnson Misattributed

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

Georges Clemenceau Misattributed

Presumption should never make us neglect that which appears easy to us, nor despair make us lose courage at the sight of difficulties.

Benjamin Banneker Misattributed

Related topics