Joan Detz Speaker Services

Many of you are busy preparing remarks for Veterans Day.  Perhaps these quotations will give you some ideas:

“War demands real toughness of fiber - not only in the soldiers that must endure, but in the homes that must sacrifice their best.” (Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a 1944 letter)

“The soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.”  (Douglas MacArthur, in a speech to West Point Cadets)

“Men who have offered their lives for their country know that patriotism is not the fear of something; it is the love of something.” (Adlai Stevenson, in a 1952 speech to the American Legion Convention at Madison Square Garden in NYC)

“[The American soldier] is not only brave but he is generous; and when he has fought for a principle and won, he has no desire to crush his foe, but is eager to abide by the old Latin maxim of “live and let live;” and he forgets and forgives, and lends a helping hand when a disposition to do the right thing is shown.” (US nurse and philanthropist Clara Barton … founder of the American Red Cross)

“If we had not persuaded the United Nations to back up the free Republic of Korea, Western Europe would have gone into the hands of the Communists.” (Harry S. Truman, in his autobiography)

“The Union soldiers and sailors are now veterans of time as well of war.” (Benjamin Harrison, 1892 acceptance speech, second Republican nomination)

“But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground.  The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863)

“As men do not live by bread alone, they do not fight by armaments alone.”  (Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Four Freedoms” speech, 1941)

“A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.  More than that no man is entitled to, and less than that no man shall have.”  (Theodore Roosevelt, 1903 speech)

“A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.”  (George William Curtis)

“I’ve always loved my wife, my children and my grandchildren, and I’ve always loved my country.” (last words of Dwight Eisenhower, 1969)