Culture and Lifestyle Quotes and Sayings Our Favorite Veteran's Day Quotes By Nellah Bailey McGough Nellah Bailey McGough Nellah McGough runs the day-to-day operations in the Southern Living Birmingham office, responds to reader questions and comments, manages freelancer contracts, and invoices. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Updated on January 5, 2022 Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos Join us as we honor the men and women who sacrificially serve, protect, and defend our country. First known as Armistice Day, President Woodrow Wilson set aside the day of Nov. 11 (the first anniversary of the signing of the armistice ending WWI) to recognize and thank our American soldiers for their service. This day was declared a National Holiday in 1938 and in 1954 the name was changed to Veteran's Day to honor all American Veterans. Therefore, we take this day to commemorate and celebrate the brave, loyal, and selfless American soldiers and their families for giving us the opportunity to live freely in this great country. We hope the following quotes will help us keep these men and women in our thoughts and prayers not only on Nov. 11 but the other 364 days of the year. 01 of 21 Author Unknown Southern Living "Freedom is never free." 02 of 21 Maya Angelou Southern Living "How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our Heroes and She-roes!" 03 of 21 Michel de Montaigne Southern Living "Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul." 04 of 21 Jose Narosky Southern Living "In war, there are no unwounded soldiers." 05 of 21 John Fitzgerald Kennedy Southern Living "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." 06 of 21 Oliver Wendell Holmes Southern Living "Lord, bid war's trumpet cease; fold the whole Earth in peace." 07 of 21 Elmer Davis Southern Living "This nation will remain the land of the free only as long as it is home of the brave." 08 of 21 Joseph Campbell Southern Living "A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." 09 of 21 Billy Graham Southern Living "Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened." 10 of 21 Bill Shuster Southern Living "Our Veterans accepted the responsibility to defend America and uphold our values when duty called." 11 of 21 Ronald Reagan Southern Living "Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but the Marines don't have that problem." 12 of 21 Patrick Henry Southern Living The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. 13 of 21 G. K. Chesterton Southern Living "Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form or a readiness to die." 14 of 21 Winston Churchill Southern Living "Never give in—never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." 15 of 21 Dan Lipinski Southern Living "On this Veteran's Day, let us remember the service of our veterans, and let us renew our national promise to fulfill our sacred obligations to our veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much so that we can live free." 16 of 21 Abraham Lincoln Southern Living 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 best he can, the same cause. 17 of 21 Thucydides Southern Living "The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it." 18 of 21 Jeff Miller Southern Living "The Willingness of America's veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude." 19 of 21 Mark Twain Southern Living "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear." 20 of 21 Steve Buyer Southern Living "The young patriots now returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan and other deployments worldwide are joining the ranks of veterans to whom America owes an immense debt of Gratitude." 21 of 21 George Washington Southern Living "The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation." Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit