On Monday, the nation, our state and our community will take pause to remember those who have served our country so we can continue to enjoy our many freedoms. The Sunday Telegraph, too, takes pause to reflect on this all-important day and to recall some famous words:

“I don’t have to tell you how fragile this precious gift of freedom is. Every time we hear, watch or read the news, we are reminded that liberty is a rare commodity in this world.” – President Ronald Reagan

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” – Gen. George Smith Patton

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” – President John F. Kennedy

“Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.” – President Harry S. Truman

“I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did.” President Benjamin Harrison

“Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay, but we can honor their sacrifice.” – President Barack Obama

“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.” – General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.

“Decoration Day is the most beautiful of our national holidays … The grim cannon have turned into palm branches, and the shell and shrapnel into peach blossoms.” – Thomas Bailey Aldrich

“On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation!” – Thomas William Parsons

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