Honoring All Who Have Served (Past, Present, and Future) God Bless!

But the freedom that they fought for, and the country grand they wrought for,
Is their monument to-day, and for aye.
~Thomas Dunn English


It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. ~Author unknown, sometimes attributed to M. Grundler


In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. ~José Narosky


This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. ~Elmer Davis


But fame is theirs - and future days
On pillar'd brass shall tell their praise;
Shall tell - when cold neglect is dead -
"These for their country fought and bled."
~Philip Freneau


Freedom is never free. ~Author Unknown


I think there is one higher office than president and I would call that patriot. ~Gary Hart


When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep? ~George Canning


As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy


Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul. ~Michel de Montaigne


I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?" ~Eve Merriam


We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. ~Cynthia Ozick


Lord, bid war's trumpet cease;
Fold the whole earth in peace.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes


How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! ~Maya Angelou


When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them. ~Chinese Proverb


The most persistent sound which reverberates through men's history is the beating of war drums. ~Arthur Koestler, Janus: A Summing Up


The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war. ~Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit


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


How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
~William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, much later adapted to "So shines a good deed in a weary world" by David Seltzer for the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory


In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot. ~Mark Twain, Notebook, 1935

Bill Gates

640K ought to be enough for anybody.
Bill Gates

Almost every way we make electricity today, except for the emerging renewables and nuclear, puts out CO2. And so, what we're going to have to do at a global scale, is create a new system. And so, we need energy miracles.
Bill Gates

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.
Bill Gates

At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top - I'm afraid that's not quite right.
Bill Gates

Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Bill Gates

DOS is ugly and interferes with users' experience.
Bill Gates

I actually thought that it would be a little confusing during the same period of your life to be in one meeting when you're trying to make money, and then go to another meeting where you're giving it away.
Bill Gates

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.
Bill Gates

I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.
Bill Gates

I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.
Bill Gates

I'm a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they're interested in.
Bill Gates

I'm sorry that we have to have a Washington presence. We thrived during our first 16 years without any of this. I never made a political visit to Washington and we had no people here. It wasn't on our radar screen. We were just making great software.
Bill Gates

If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG.
Bill Gates

If I'd had some set idea of a finish line, don't you think I would have crossed it years ago?
Bill Gates

If you can't make it good, at least make it look good.
Bill Gates

If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.
Bill Gates

In this business, by the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone.
Bill Gates

Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.
Bill Gates

Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.
Bill Gates

It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.
Bill Gates

Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.
Bill Gates

Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself.
Bill Gates

Life is not fair; get used to it.
Bill Gates

Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren't so exciting.
Bill Gates

Microsoft is not about greed. It's about innovation and fairness.
Bill Gates

Now, we put out a lot of carbon dioxide every year, over 26 billion tons. For each American, it's about 20 tons. For people in poor countries, it's less than one ton. It's an average of about five tons for everyone on the planet. And, somehow, we have to make changes that will bring that down to zero.
Bill Gates

People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines... There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters.
Bill Gates

People everywhere love Windows.
Bill Gates

Security is, I would say, our top priority because for all the exciting things you will be able to do with computers - organizing your lives, staying in touch with people, being creative - if we don't solve these security problems, then people will hold back.
Bill Gates

Since when has the world of computer software design been about what people want? This is a simple question of evolution. The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy.
Bill Gates

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.
Bill Gates

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.
Bill Gates

Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Bill Gates

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.
Bill Gates

The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.
Bill Gates

The U.S. couldn't even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They'll be killing each other again in less than a year. I'm sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits.
Bill Gates

There are people who don't like capitalism, and people who don't like PCs. But there's no-one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft.
Bill Gates

This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50.
Bill Gates

Until we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do.
Bill Gates

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction.
Bill Gates

We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be.
Bill Gates

We've got to put a lot of money into changing behavior.
Bill Gates

When the PC was launched, people knew it was important.
Bill Gates

When you want to do your homework, fill out your tax return, or see all the choices for a trip you want to take, you need a full-size screen.
Bill Gates

Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.
Bill Gates

Windows 2000 already contains features such as the human discipline component, where the PC can send an electric shock through the keyboard if the human does something that does not please Windows.
Bill Gates

You see, antiquated ideas of kindness and generosity are simply bugs that must be programmed out of our world. And these cold, unfeeling machines will show us the way.
Bill Gates

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.
Bill Gates

Johnny Carson

Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place.
Johnny Carson

Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president.
Johnny Carson

For days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow, but phone calls taper off.
Johnny Carson

For three days after death, hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off.
Johnny Carson

Happiness is your dentist telling you it won't hurt and then having him catch his hand in the drill.
Johnny Carson

I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself.
Johnny Carson

I know you've been married to the same woman for 69 years. That is marvelous. It must be very inexpensive.
Johnny Carson

I was so naive as a kid I used to sneak behind the barn and do nothing.
Johnny Carson

If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we'd still be eating frozen radio dinners.
Johnny Carson

If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead.
Johnny Carson

If variety is the spice of life, marriage is the big can of leftover Spam.
Johnny Carson

Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.
Johnny Carson

Married men live longer than single men. But married men are a lot more willing to die.
Johnny Carson

My success just evolved from working hard at the business at hand each day.
Johnny Carson

Never continue in a job you don't enjoy. If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.
Johnny Carson
Never use a big word when a little filthy one will do.
Johnny Carson

New York is an exciting town where something is happening all the time, most unsolved.
Johnny Carson

People will pay more to be entertained than educated.
Johnny Carson

Talent alone won't make you a success. Neither will being in the right place at the right time, unless you are ready. The most important question is: "Are your ready?"
Johnny Carson

The only thing money gives you is the freedom of not worrying about money.
Johnny Carson

We're more effective than birth control pills.
Johnny Carson

When turkeys mate they think of swans.
Johnny Carson

Annette Funicello

Animation did not become the dominant form of children's television until the '60s.
Annette Funicello

As I grew older, I came to feel more responsible for any hardship or trouble my career caused my family.
Annette Funicello

As I travel across the country speaking about MS, perhaps I can offer others comfort and hope.
Annette Funicello

At the beginning of 1955 only about 60 percent of American homes had TVs.
Annette Funicello

Dick Clark really didn't make rock 'n roll safe for America, as many people think.
Annette Funicello

For me, the wheelchair symbolizes disability in a way a cane does not.
Annette Funicello

Growing up in public is especially hard sometimes.
Annette Funicello

I always considered myself a dancer before anything else.
Annette Funicello

I have always thought of Walt Disney as my second father.
Annette Funicello

I still don't know precisely why The Mickey Mouse Club ended when it did.
Annette Funicello

I was not prepared to live as a single parent.
Annette Funicello

I'm saddened to see that some have been misled into believing that Mr. Disney was something other than a kind, caring man.
Annette Funicello

I've always found Mr. Disney to be somewhat of a shy person, a kid at heart.
Annette Funicello

In 1993 my birthday present was a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
Annette Funicello

In the United States women develop MS at approximately twice the rate men do, and no one can explain why women are affected most often from the waist down.
Annette Funicello

Just learning that you have MS is such a devastating shock.
Annette Funicello

Mickey Mouse... is always there-he's part of my life. That really is something not everyone can call their claim to fame.
Annette Funicello

Most original viewers of the Mickey Mouse Club didn't face the crush of family and social problems children have today.
Annette Funicello

Mr. Disney and his staff were constantly scouting for great stories to bring to life on film.
Annette Funicello

Mr. Disney believed everyone was still a child deep inside.
Annette Funicello

MS is not really a degenerative illness. It is not fatal, nor is it always progressive.
Annette Funicello

My dear friend Jimmie Dodd was the heart and the soul of The Mickey Mouse Club.
Annette Funicello

Of all the roles I've played, none has been as fulfilling as being a mother.
Annette Funicello

Of the many guests we welcomed to the Mickey Mouse Club, my absolute favorites were the Lennon Sisters.
Annette Funicello

The Lord has been with me throughout my life. He's never let me down.
Annette Funicello

The mere thought of divorce terrified me. To me, divorce symbolized failure.
Annette Funicello

The original Mickey Mouse Club, established in the '30s, was designed to attract children to movie theaters.
Annette Funicello

Then, as now, the Disney studio buzzed with activity. You had a strong impression of being at the center of something very exciting.
Annette Funicello

To some, the '50s were a decade marked by the banal, the predictable.
Annette Funicello

Watching television in those days was not the same experience as it is today. After years of listening to radio, we found the black-and-white images mesmerizing.
Annette Funicello

Whatever ambivalence I felt about my own career, Frankie more than made up for it with his ambition and tenacity.
Annette Funicello

Whatever dreams I have wished have come true.
Annette Funicello

When you are young and healthy, it never occurs to you that in a single second your whole life could change.
Annette Funicello

Tom Petty

I don't think it's a good attitude in your life to feel that you have to be rich to have self-esteem.
Tom Petty

I have turned down a lot of money for things that would have made me feel cheesy.
Tom Petty

I think television's become a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever. If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television.
Tom Petty

I'm barely prolific and incredibly lazy.
Tom Petty

It's better to burn out, then to fade away.
Tom Petty

It's funny how the music industry is enraged about the Internet and the way things are copied without being paid for. But you know why people steal the music? Because they can't afford the music.
Tom Petty

It's very easy to be cynical about the hall of fame. But on the other hand, it's really a beautiful thing for someone like me. I dedicated my entire life to this music.
Tom Petty

Most things I worry about never happen anyway.
Tom Petty

The music business looks like, you know, innocent schoolboys compared to the TV business. They care about nothing but profit.
Tom Petty

TV does not care about you or what happens to you. It's downright bad for your health now, and that's not a far-out concept. I think watching the TV news is bad for you. It is bad for your physical health and your mental health.
Tom Petty

We don't really make bad records, though some people might like some more than others. And we have never really done a bad show. So I think in a way maybe we've been taken for granted.
Tom Petty

You and I will meet again, When we're least expecting it, One day in some far off place, I will recognize your face, I won't say goodbye my friend, For you and I will meet again.
Tom Petty

Chuck Berry

Don't let the same dog bite you twice.
Chuck Berry

It's amazing how much you can learn if your intentions are truly earnest.
Chuck Berry

Rock's so good to me. Rock is my child and my grandfather.
Chuck Berry

Alan Jackson

For some reason I've been labeled that and it's fine, but there are a lot of other artists that sing real traditional stuff, so I don't know why they picked me. That's what I've always done.
Alan Jackson

He's written some great songs. I thought that "Blues Man" was a perfect song for me to do as a tribute.
Alan Jackson

Hee Haw was probably my biggest exposure to live music at a young age, because there wasn't any live music around my town and no one in my family played instruments.
Alan Jackson

I could have done a hundred songs, really. It was hard to narrow them down, because I tried to pick songs for the most part that actually did have some effect on me or influenced me in the past.
Alan Jackson

I didn't realize until I was older what a huge music fan my daddy really was, and actually that my grandma played banjo at one time, and I didn't even know that until a year or two ago.
Alan Jackson

I really was a fan of his and always have been - his writing especially, you know? I think people a lot of times overlook that part, because he kind of got into that party character so heavy.
Alan Jackson

My mother kept asking me, 'When are you going to do a gospel album?' And I've always wanted to do a gospel album. Everybody was going on about it, so mom started hounding me more.
Alan Jackson

Probably some of the songs I never even really listened to the lyrics. Half of them I'd hear off the radio and was probably singing the wrong words and didn't even know it.
Alan Jackson