Memorial Day is America's unofficial kickoff to summer, but it's also a day to remember those who've given their lives in service to our country. (This separates its purpose from Veterans Day, which is in honor of all veterans, not just those who did not come home from our nation's wars.)

Memory itself is a funny thing. It's not always reliable, and it can color our lives in ways we don't even realize. However, remembering our collective past--and especially those who gave up their futures so that we could enjoy our present--is very important.

Here are 31 inspirational quotes about memory and sacrifice, all designed to get you in the right frame of mind to remember the spirit of this national holiday while you enjoy it.



3. "Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You'll find what you need to furnish it--memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey." --Ted Williams

4. "Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag." --Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn



7. "Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart." --Washington Irving


9. Memories, even bittersweet ones, are better than nothing." --Jennifer L. Armentrout


11. "When the soldiers came home from Vietnam, there were no parades, no celebrations. So they built the Vietnam Memorial for themselves." --William Westmoreland

12. "So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good." --Helen Keller

13. "Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die." --G.K. Chesterton

14. "Famous men have the whole earth as their memorial." --Pericles

15. "And they who for their country die shall fill an honored grave, for glory lights the soldier's tomb, and beauty weeps the brave." --Joseph Rodman Drake

16. "Ceremonies are important. But our gratitude has to be more than visits to the troops, and once-a-year Memorial Day ceremonies. We honor the dead best by treating the living well." --Jennifer M. Granholm

17. "Who kept the faith and fought the fight; The glory theirs, the duty ours." --Wallace Bruce


19. "Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering." --Theodore Roosevelt


21. "History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals." --Malcolm X

22. "There are three side effects of acid: enhanced long-term memory, decreased short-term memory, and I forget the third." --Timothy Leary

23. "I am going to take something I learned over in Israel. Their Independence Day is preceded the 24 hours before with Memorial Day, so it gives them a chance to serve and reflect and then celebrate. I am going to try to start that tradition here in America. --Glenn Beck

24. "I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again." --F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise


26. "Sharing tales of those we've lost is how we keep from really losing them." --Mitch Albom, For One More Day

27. "I heard a definition once: Happiness is health and a short memory! I wish I'd invented it, because it is very true. --Audrey Hepburn

28. "These men were wrongfully rejected, the veterans. The fighting man should never have been blamed for Vietnam." --Neil Sheehan


30. "A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory." --Steven Wright

31. "Congress should stop treating veterans like they're asking for a hand out when it comes to the benefits they were promised, and they should realize that, were it not for these veterans, there would be nothing to hand out." --Nick Lampson