Top 40 Veteran's Day Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”

— George Orwell

2. “My heroes are those who risk their lives every day to protect our world and make it a better place – police, firefighters and members of our armed forces.”

— Sidney Sheldon

3. “God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.”

— Daniel Webster

4. “Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country’s cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.”

— Abraham Lincoln

Also featured in: Country Quotes

5. “Freedom is never free.”

— Maya Angelou

6. “Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.”

— Ernest Hemingway

7. “Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.”

— Ronald Reagan

8. “Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”

— Abraham Lincoln

9. “We, too, born to freedom, and believing in freedom, are willing to fight to maintain freedom. We, and all others who believe as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

10. “Those who cannot bravely face danger are the slaves of their attackers.”

— Aristotle

11. “History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.”

— Ronald Reagan

12. “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.”

— George S. Patton Jr.

Also featured in: Courage Quotes, Short Motivational Quotes, Military Quotes, Determination Quotes, Fear Quotes

13. “You’d have to go a long way to find someone who was more proud and grateful for what our veterans have done for all of us.”

— Jim Davis

14. “Have the courage to act instead of react.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Also featured in: Courage Quotes

15. “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.”

— Douglas MacArthur

Also featured in: Service Quotes, Military Quotes, Memorial Day Quotes

16. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

— Thomas Jefferson

Also featured in: Wisdom Quotes, Resistance Quotes, Fighting Quotes, Government Quotes

17. “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

— Thomas Paine

Also featured in: Life is Hard Quotes

18. “In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.”

— Mark Twain

19. “Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look upon them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.”

— Sun Tzu

20. “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.”

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Also featured in: Strong Quotes

21. “I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask: “Mother, what was war?””

— Eve Merriam

22. “Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.”

— Donald Trump

23. “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”

— Joseph Campbell

Also featured in: Service Quotes, Purpose Quotes, Sacrifice Quotes, Hero Quotes

24. “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.”

— Billy Graham

Also featured in: Christian Motivational Quotes, Boldness Quotes, Overcoming Fear Quotes, Being Strong Quotes

25. “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”

— Mel Gibson

26. “No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck.”

— Erich Maria Remarque

27. “It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.”

— Norman Schwarzkopf

28. “The most persistent sound which reverberates through man’s history is the beating of war drums.”

— Arthur Koestler

29. “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.”

— Patrick Henry

30. “Better than honor and glory, and History’s iron pen, Was the thought of duty done and the love of his fellow-men.”

— Richard Watson Gilder

31. “But this Veterans Day, I believe we should do more than sing the praises of the bravery and patriotism that our veterans have embodied in the past. We should take this opportunity to re-evaluate how we are treating our veterans in the present.”

— Nick Lampson

32. “It is Veterans Day, when we honor everyone who served in all of the campaigns. We honor them with dignity and respect, and of course mattress sales and tire discounts.”

— Craig Ferguson

33. “Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.”

— Michel de Montaigne

34. “Lord, bid war’s trumpet cease; Fold the whole earth in peace.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

35. “History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”

— Dwight D. Eisenhower

36. “That was not the biggest battle that ever was, but for me it always typified one thing; the dash, the ingenuity, the readiness at the first opportunity that characterizes the American soldier.”

— Dwight D. Eisenhower

37. “Our veterans accepted the responsibility to defend America and uphold our values when duty called.”

— Bill Shuster

38. “Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.”

— George S. Patton Jr.

39. “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”

— Thomas Paine

Also featured in: Time Quotes, Peace Quotes, Sacrifice Quotes

40. “You’ve been told that you’re broken, that you’re damaged goods and should be labeled victims. I don’t buy it. The truth, instead, is that you are the only folks with the skills, determination, and values to ensure American dominance in this chaotic world.”

— James Mattis