Serve Our Country Quotes

“Justice Denied
Thousands of women, probably more
I cannot reach them behind justice doors
Many stay silent, barred just like me.
Haunted by demons, faces unseen.
Still by the hundreds, they continue to serve
Duty and country, active and reserve.
Thankless, forgotten through America's wars
Scarred like their brethren, treated as foes.
Volunteered to go to the shores.
Died like the others, shamed to the core.
Where is the dignity, long since denied?
Lost in the White House of Justice Denied
Women in service since beginning of time
Often they're treated like victims in crime.
Where is their voice, silence throughout the years?
It's dead in the Senate and House, with their tears!”

— Diane Chamberlain

“Satan is too hard a master. He would never command as did the Other with divine simplicity: 'Do likewise.' The devil will have no victims resemble him. He permits only a rough caricature, impotent, abject, which has to serve as food for eternal irony, the mordant irony of the depths.
Diary of a Country Priest”

— Georges Bernanos

“Shared public meaning gives soldiers a context for their losses and their sacrifice that is acknowledged by most of the society. That helps keep at bay the sense of futility and rage that can develop among soldiers during a war that doesn't seem to end. Such public meaning is probably not generated by the kinds of formulaic phrases, such as "Thank you for your service," that many Americans now feel compelled to offer soldiers and vets. Neither is it generated by honoring vets at sporting events, allowing them to board planes first, or giving them minor discounts at stores. If anything, these token acts only deepen the chasm between the military and civilian populations by highlighting the fact that some people serve their country but the vast majority don't. In Israel, where around half of the population serves in the military, reflexively thanking someone for their service makes as little sense as thanking them for paying their taxes. It doesn't cross anyone's mind.”

— Sebastian Junger

“The horrific cases in Ferguson, in Staten Island with the death of Eric Garner, and all across the country serve as stark reminders that we must have a say in who polices us, and how that policing is done. We must, we must, let our voices be heard on Election Day.”

— Al Sharpton

“The immediate future is going to be tragic for all of us unless we find a way of making the vast educational resources of this country serve the true purpose of education, truth and justice.”

— Anne Sullivan

“For me personally, as I said, I want to serve my country. I've done it once, and I'm still in the army, I feel as though I should get the opportunity to do it again.”

— Prince Harry

“I've always wanted to serve my country in some capacity.”

— Pete Coors

“I believe that my experience as an HBO executive responsible for global marketing and communications should serve our country well as we tell America's story in Spain and Andorra.”

— James Costos

“It is plainly evident that, in a country where land was to be had for the asking, fuel for the cutting, corn for the planting and harvesting, and game and fish for the least expenditure of labor, no man would long serve for another, and any system of reliable service indoors or afield must fail.”

— Alice Morse Earle

“There is no greater call to service than that of our brave men and women who serve our country in combat across the globe.”

— Kirsten Gillibrand

“In our country today, very few children are raised to believe that their principal destiny is to serve their family, their country, or God.”

— Benjamin Spock

“I did what any American could and should do: serve his country in its time of need.”

— Bob Feller

“Patriotism does not mean that you think your country is perfect, or blameless, or even particularly likeable on balance; nor does it mean that you serve it blindly, go where it tells you to go and kill whom it tells you to kill. It means that you are committed to keeping it alive and making it better, that you will do whatever seems necessary (up to and including dying) to protect it whenever you, personally, perceive a mortal threat to it, military or otherwise.”

— Spider Robinson

“I come from a fragmented society. A country proud to serve as a bridge between Europe and Asia yet unable to bridge its own differences.”

— Safak Pavey

“I don't think there is any good answer to the question why shouldn't gays and lesbians who want to serve their country be allowed to do it.”

— John Bolton

“The best way to begin genuine bipartisanship to make America stronger is to work together on the real crises facing our country, not to manufacture an artificial crisis to serve a special interest agenda out of touch with the needs of Americans.”

— John F. Kerry

“It is very rewarding to serve the country by helping President Bush work to reduce the drug problem.”

— John Walters

“I was raised with the notion that there is no greater honor than to find a way to serve your country.”

— Jim Webb

“We know the Republicans are happy to keep the country in the dark, and if we Democrats are to recapture the power necessary to assert our values, we must find the energy, courage, creativity and unity to map out a brighter day for the people we sincerely want to serve.”

— John Yarmuth

“I think there are many ways to serve your country.”

— Jenna Bush

“We're sort of putting a slightly different spin on Steve Rogers. He's a guy that wants to serve his country, but he's not a flag-waver. We're reinterpreting, sort of, what the comic book version of Steve Rogers was.”

— Joe Johnston

“My schools were quite diverse - those who serve their country come from every race and religion - and so the military schools I attended were a wonderful melting pot.”

— Marcia Gay Harden

“I'm still in touch with a lot people who continue to serve our country well.”

— Oliver North

“What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.”

— Joseph Addison

“The plain fact is that this country and other industrial countries are deeply dependent on animal exploitation to sustain their present economic structures. The plain fact is that we are more dependent on animal exploitation than were the states of the southern United States on human slavery ... . So, although there are more people concerned about animals and the environment, little progress has been made because those who profit from animal exploitation and the government that exists to serve their interests have a lot to lose and are not budging-not an inch.”

— Gary L. Francione

“Not everybody goes to government to serve themselves and not their country.”

— Ruben Blades

“I think my father thought I might be president of the United States. I think he would've been satisfied with secretary of state. I'm a foreign policy person, and to have a chance to serve my country as the nation's chief diplomat at a time of peril and consequence, that was enough.”

— Condoleezza Rice

“I am willing to serve my country, but my worship I reserve for Right which is far greater than my country. To worship my country as a god is to bring a curse upon it.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

“Rick Santorum has so much potential and so much eagerness to serve our country.”

— Foster Friess

“Balanced service is a virtue to be cherished. There is to be time in our life to serve God, to serve our family, to serve our country and community, to serve our employer. Wise persons budget available time so that no significant area of one's life falls into a state of neglect.”

— Thomas S. Monson

“He had volunteered early, rather than waiting to be conscripted, for he felt a duty and an obligation to serve, and believed that ... being willing to fight for his country and the liberty it represented, would make some small difference ... His idealism was one of the casualties of the carnage [of Verdun].”

— Iain Pears

“But I think what we're coming to grips with is the fact that we actually have a mercenary Army, and it doesn't have a nice ring to it. We call it 'volunteers', but we're basically paying people to serve their country. And if you're going to pay people and have a mercenary Army, you're going to have to pay the market rate. And so the bounties are going up-more money for tuition, higher enlistment bonuses-and I think it's appropriate.”

— Eleanor Clift

“Some have an idea that the reason we in this country discard things so readily is because we have so much. The facts are exactly opposite-the reason we have so much is simply because we discard things so readily. We replace the old in return for something that will serve us better.”

— Alfred P. Sloan

“We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances. We are profoundly grateful to our Commander-in-Chief and to our nation for this day. God bless America.”

— Jeremiah Denton

“The church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors ... For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! Welcome atheism! Welcome anything! in preference to the gospel, as preached by these Divines! They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke put together have done!”

— Frederick Douglass

“Religion and practical life are not different. To take sanyas (renunciation) is not to abandon life. The real spirit is to make the country, your family, work together instead of working only for your own. The step beyond is to serve humanity and the next step is to serve God,”

— Bal Gangadhar Tilak

“I am convinced that the majority of the religious hierarchy today deplores the hardship inflicted on our people. I am referring not only to the martyrs but of the families who have been dispersed and terrified, who have no resources, and to the four million unemployed who are suffering from the economic chaos of a country which only a year earlier was giving employment to a million foreigners. Those who have chosen to serve God must feel profoundly sad at seeing ridicule poured on the most sacred principles of our religion.”

— Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

“You this day, gentlemen, assume new characters, enter into new relations, and consequently incur new duties. You have, by the favor of Providence and the attention of your friends, received a public education, the purpose whereof hath been to qualify you the better to serve your Creator and your country ...”

— William Samuel Johnson

“The opportunity to serve our country-that is all we ask.”

— John Smith

“No Zionist can forgo the smallest portion of the Land Of Israel. [A] Jewishstate in part [of Palestine] is not an end, but a beginning ... Our possessionis important not only for itself ... through this we increase our power,and every increase in power facilitates getting hold of the country in itsentirety. Establishing a [small] state ... will serve as a very potent lever inour historical effort to redeem the whole country.”

— David

“I address you with neither rancor nor bitterness in the fading twilight of life, with but one purpose in mind: to serve my country.”

— Douglas MacArthur

“Expose your life to real need. Visit a developing a country. Take a short term mission trip. Write an inmate, send a letter to a sponsored child, serve in the inner city, at a food bank, with a crisis pregnancy center. Make time for shut-ins, the elderly, the sick, the single-parents, the new believers. Just find one way you can make your awareness of your gift-graced life intersect with a real place of need - and Christ in us will do the rest.”

— Ann Voskamp

“It is time to acknowledge the extraordinary sacrifice of all of our veterans. While many Massachusetts soldiers served our nation in a period technically dubbed 'peacetime,' they restored American pride in the wake of Vietnam and helped bring a successful end to the Cold War. The service of these men and women was not without cost. There are countless stories of soldiers who served with great distinction only to be denied veteran status after returning home. Every man and woman who volunteered to serve this country should be treated with the same degree of respect, gratitude and dignity.”

— Mitt Romney

“If I knew something that would serve my country but would harm mankind, I would never reveal it; for I am a citizen of humanity first and by necessity, and a citizen of France second, and only by accident”

— Baron De Montesquieu

“I take a backseat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans. And I will not accept from Senator Obama, who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform, any lectures on my regard for those who did.”

— John McCain

“Old fashioned as it may seem to some, it is my duty to serve my country. (And) I didn't seek this job but I want to do it, and I will do my very best.”

— George H.W. Bush

“As a president, my job is not to promote a religion, my job is to call people to serve our country.”

— George W. Bush

“I have just accepted the invitation of Her Majesty The Queen to form a Government. This will be a new Government with new priorities and I have been privileged to have been granted the great opportunity to serve my country and at all times I will be strong in purpose, steadfast in will, resolute in action in the service of what matters to the British people, meeting the concerns and aspirations of our whole country.”

— Gordon Brown

“Mr. Speaker, at a time when the nation is again confronted with necessity for calling its young men into service in the interestsof National Security, I cannot see the wisdom of denying our young women the opportunity to serve their country.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

“Truth-telling to Congress and the public is not disloyal in America: it is an expression of the higher loyalty officials owe to the Constitution, the rule of law, and the sovereign public. It is a courageous, patriotic, and effective way to serve our country. The time to speak out is now.”

— Daniel Ellsberg