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:
Be grateful for the highs — and be grateful for the lows — 'cause it's in the lows where you learn.
Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.
A ruler that has but an army has one hand, but he who has a navy has both.
He, who will not reason, is a bigot; he, who cannot, is a fool; and he, who dares not, is a slave.
War is a terrible thing, and many people return with wounds invisible to the eye.
War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.
“Creatures trained in warfare are what he calls ‘philosophically anti-life.’”
Pain nourishes courage. You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you.
Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.
A war is not won if the defeated enemy has not been turned into a friend.
Although the Georgian nationalists do not like Stalin, they have every reason to be thankful to him.
A war is a disaster whether you win or you lose—it’s only a worse disaster if you lose.