It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.
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.
Most quoted on veterans day:
The arms race is a race between nuclear weapons and ourselves.
To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.
The knight's bones are dust,
And his good sword rust;
His soul is with the saints, I trust.
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.