True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
~Arthur Ashe

Valor grows by daring, fear by holding back.
~Publilius Syrus

Four things support the world: the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the good, and the valor of the brave.
~Muhammad

Each man is a hero and an oracle to somebody.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored. ~Daniel Webster


With the tears a Land hath shed
Their graves should ever be green.
~Thomas Bailey Aldrich

For love of country they accepted death... ~James A. Garfield

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal. ~From a headstone in Ireland

They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast,
And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
~Mark Twain

The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree. ~Thomas Campbell

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

I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did. ~Benjamin Harrison

Life hangs as nothing in the scale against dear Liberty! ~Lucy Larcom

All we have of freedom, all we use or know -
This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.
~Rudyard Kipling, The Old Issue, 1899

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them. ~Francis A. Walker

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! ~Maya Angelou