Veterans Day, originally celebrated as Armistice Day in 1926, is a national holiday set aside to honor those who have served our country in uniform. The Veterans Administration has a brief history showing how this national holiday evolved from its original purpose of honoring World War I vets to the meaning it has today.
Here are a few quotes that seem appropriate on this day:
- “These are the times that try men’s souls. the summer soldier and the sunshine partriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
— Thomas Paine - “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 - “…the tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots.”
— Thomas Jefferson - “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
— President John F. Kennedy - “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr. - “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.”
— G. K. Chesterton, author - “In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, Brave, Hated, and Scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, For then it costs nothing to be a Patriot.”
— Mark Twain - “Freedom is a system based on courage.”
— Charles Peguy, author