Are they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal language? Are they dead that yet act? Are they dead that yet move upon society and inspire the people with nobler motives and more heroic patriotism? – Henry Ward Beecher

We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them. – Francis A. Walker

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