William Butler Yeats Quotes

It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.

All gave some. Some gave all. Some stood true for the red, white and blue. Some had to fall. Some gave all

It is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country.

It is a sweet and proper thing to die for one’s country.

The greatest men of a nation are those it puts to death.

Men, today we die a little.

You don't send a man to his death because you want a hero.

A short, glorious life in service of a greater good - say, the life of the Spartans at Thermopylae, or the pilots in the Battle of Britain, of whom Winston Churchill said 'Never have so many owed so much to so few,' - that is worth praising. But for glory alone? I think not.

The real heroes were my good buddies who died during the battles.

Through the centuries, over 1.2 million brave men and women have given their lives for our nation.

Colonel, I do not care to die, but I pray to God I may never leave this field.

For as long as this nation has known war, we have embraced the heroes it has produced. Americans have rightfully noted the honor and nobility of courage under hostile fire and thanked those who perished in their defense.

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.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

Lest I keep my complacent ways I must remind myself.. Someone out there died for me today As long as there is war.. I ask and I must answer.. Was I worth dying for?

Anyone who wants to carry on the war against the outsiders, come with me. I can’t offer you either honours or wages; I offer you hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Anyone who loves his country, follow me.

Here's to the red of it, There's not a thread of it, No, not a shred of it, In all the spread of it, From foot to head, But heroes bled for it, Faced steel and lead for it, Precious blood shed for it, Bathing in red.

A glorious death is his Who for his country falls.

It is a sweet and glorious thing to die for one's country. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

The soldier going down and the cause of freedom never dies—immortality is his.

Some made the ultimate sacrifice. The rest of us were lucky.

If you avoid dying for the honour and freedom of the Fatherland, you will die a criminal or a slave; die for the faith and the Fatherland and you will be granted life and a crown in heaven

You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else's life. They're plenty loud and they talk all the time. You can find them in churches and schools and newspapers and legislatures and congress. That's their business. They sound wonderful. Death before dishonor. This ground sanctified by blood. These men who died so gloriously. They shall not have died in vain. Our noble dead.

For months people have been begging me to come here for this Kamikaze operation. We will die well. The fact that we are taking a role in a great moment is history is a great honor.

I long to die for such a true cause; I wish to expire on the bed of glory; I wish to perish at my post.