Some Thoughts for Memorial Day
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” – John Stuart Mill
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” – Ronald Reagan
“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! – I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
“Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.” – Ronald Reagan
“There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and the enemy. Everyone else has a second-hand opinion.” Gen. William Thornson, U.S. Army
“Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.” – Ronald Reagan
“Some people wouldn’t know a threat to their freedom until it cut the power to their Xbox and killed a half a million of their friends.” – Mike Kaminski as General Patton.
“The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years.” James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy; 23 February 1945
“They told (us) to open up the Embassy, or “we’ll blow you away.” And then they looked up and saw the Marines on the roof with these really big guns, and they said in Somali, “Igaralli ahow,” which means “Excuse me, I didn’t mean it, my mistake”. Karen Aquilar, in the U.S. Embassy; Mogadishu, Somalia, 1991
“Pain is just weakness leaving your body.” U.S. Navy SEAL saying
“It’s important that people know what you stand for. It’s more important that they know what you won’t stand for.” – Will Rogers
“Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just braver five minutes longer.” – Ronald Reagan
“The only easy day was yesterday.” U.S. Navy SEAL saying
“Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.” – Ronald Reagan
“Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.” – Ronald Reagan
“We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.” – Ronald Reagan
“There is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest.” – Ronald Reagan
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” – George Orwell
“Conservatives have excellent credentials to speak about human rights. By our efforts, and with precious little help from self-styled liberals, we were largely responsible for securing liberty for a substantial share of the world’s population and defending it for most of the rest.” – Margaret Thatcher
“I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm’s way” – John Paul Jones
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
“Never, never, never give up.” – Winston Churchill
“When the British shoot, the Germans duck, when the Germans shoot, the British duck, when the Americans shoot, everybody ducks.” WW II proverb
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a soldier.
“To be born free is an accident. To live free is a privilege. To die free is a responsibility.” – Brig. General James Sehorn
“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne
“Courage is doing the right thing, even if you might lose. Valor is doing the right thing when you know you cannot win.” – Daily Danet
“A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight.” – Aragorn
“They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they’ve done.” Jean Luc Picard.
“We, the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have now done so much for so long with so little, we are now capable of doing anything with nothing.” – US Navy proverb
“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” – Mike Tyson
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” – Mark Twain
“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.” – Mark Twain
“Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘nice doggie’-until you can find a big stick.” – Will Rogers
“We can’t all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.” – Will Rogers
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston S. Churchill
“Appeasement only ensures the dragon stays well fed. These men came to slay the dragon.” – Daily Danet
“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” – Samuel Adams
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”- Thomas Paine
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.” – Dante Aligheri
“Before we’re through with ‘em, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell!” – Vice Admiral William F. Halsey
“Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry
“People like me do the things I do, so that people like you can continue to do the things you do.” – Johnny Micheal Spann, Killed in Action (Afghanistan) 25 November, 2001
“Doing bad things to bad people.” Motto of 3rd Special Forces Group
“In our business winning is everything, second place is unthinkable” – General Henry H. Shelton
“Atomic warfare is bad enough; biological warfare would be worse; but there’s something that is worse than either. The French can tell you what it is; or the Czechs, or the Greek, or the Norwegians, or the Filipinos; it is subjection to an alien oppressor.” – Elmer Davies
“Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” – Winston Churchill
“Army: A body of men assembled to rectify the mistakes of the diplomats.” – Josephus Daniels
“I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” – George W. Bush
“A society too squeamish to call evil by its right name has destroyed its first, best defense against cutthroats.” – David Gelernter
“It’s a whole lot better to go up river with seven studs than a hundred shitheads” – Col. Charlie Beckwith, Founder of Delta Force.
“We’re Airborne, we’re supposed to be surrounded.” Major Richard Winters at the Battle of the Bulge.
Excellent Dan! Thanks for this. God bless our brave men and women in uniform and the heroes who have gone before them.