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:
We have declared a bitter war against the principle of democracy and all those who seek to enact it.
Blair, don't send our young prince to your catastrophic illegal war to make it look plausible.
Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval.
Citizens of Israel, we are at war – not in an operation, not in rounds – at war.
The result of toppling tyranny in divided countries is usually civil war and ethnic cleansing.
"He who saves you from war is better than he who sends you to war."
"Wars are generally a rich man's affair and a poor man's fight.”
A religious war, the vilest form an essentially vile business can take.