Remembering 9/11: Quotes to Honor the Day

By Rebecca C. on September 10, 2024

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the terrorist attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives. Do you plan to post a remembrance for the anniversary of 9/11 also known as Patriot Day? Adding a quote to your personal or business social post is an easy way to remember the events of 9/11.

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"What separates us from the animals, what separates us from the chaos, is our ability to mourn people we've never met."— Author David Levithan
"September 11 impressed upon us that life is a precious gift. Every life has a purpose. And I think we all have a duty to devote at least a small portion of our daily lives to ensuring that neither America nor the world ever forgets September 11." – Bill Frist
"With almost no time to decide, [your loved ones] gave the entire country an incalculable gift. They saved the Capitol from attack. They saved God knows how many lives. They saved the terrorists from claiming the symbolic victory of smashing the center of American government. … They allowed us to survive as a country that could fight terror and still maintain liberty and still welcome people from all over the world from every religion and race and culture as long as they shared our values, because ordinary people given no time at all to decide did the right thing."— President Bill Clinton in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in 2011
"September 11 shocked many Americans into an awareness that they had better pay much closer attention to what the U.S. government does in the world and how it is perceived. Many issues have been opened for discussion that were not on the agenda before. That's all to the good." – Noam Chomsky
It was the worst day we have ever seen, but it brought out the best in all of us."
—Senator John Kerry
"If we learn nothing else from this tragedy, we learn that life is short and there is no time for hate." — Sandy Dahl, wife of Flight 93 pilot Jason Dahl, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in 2002
"Americans never quit." — Douglas MacArthur
"The attacks of September 11th were intended to break our spirit. Instead, we have emerged stronger and more unified. We feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic, and religious freedom, the rule of law, and respect for human life. We are more determined than ever to live our lives in freedom." — Rudy Giuliani
"These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation." - Former President George W. Bush on Sept. 11, 2001.
For me and my family personally, September 11 was a reminder that life is fleeting, impermanent, and uncertain. Therefore, we must make use of every moment and nurture it with affection, tenderness, beauty, creativity, and laughter." — Deepak Chopra
"Even the smallest act of service, the simplest act of kindness, is a way to honor those we lost, a way to reclaim that spirit of unity that followed 9/11." — Barack Obama
"Our task, in the aftermath of September 11, was and continues to be the transformation of the effects of evil into something beautiful and good." – Marianne Williamson
"I may never know the answers to the questions that plagued me after 9/11. But I know if we lean on God and each other, we will be guided to a better, brighter future." - Michael Hingson, 9/11 survivor
"America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand." — Harry S. Truman
"True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else." — Clarence Darrow
"When Americans lend a hand to one another, nothing is impossible. We're not about what happened on 9/11. We're about what happened on 9/12." — Jeff Parness
"September 11, 2001, seems destined to be the watershed event of our lives and the greatest test for our democracy in our lifetimes." — Lt. Col. Shelton F. Leskford, U.S. Marine Corps
"On that terrible day, a nation became a neighborhood, all Americans became New Yorkers." George Pataki, former Governor of New York
"What happened on September 11 compels us to focus on who we are as Americans, what we stand for, what really matters in our lives—family, friends, faith and freedom." – Bob Taft
"On September 11, I always take the day off. I want to be in a peaceful quiet place praying. It is a day I both mourn and celebrate." — Genelle Guzman-McMillan, 9/11 Survivor
"It was as if real life had been canceled for the day." ― Jennifer Weiner
"We will win this struggle—not for glory, nor wealth, nor power, but for justice, for freedom, and for peace… so help us God." — Tom Harkin
"We didn't crumble after 9/11. We didn't falter after the Boston Marathon. But we're America. Americans will never, ever stand down. We endure. We overcome. We own the finish line." —President Joe Biden
"It's the nature of the world that most people have moved on, but the people directly involved with 9/11, for them, twice a day it's 9/11." - Robert Reeg, former FDNY firefighter.
"I give speeches around the country. I tell how Stanley and I made our way out of the tower. Life is precious, I tell them. It can be gone in an instant." said Brian Clark, a 9/11 Survivor.
"I still have the shoes I wore to work that day. The soles are melted and they're caked in ash. I keep them in a shoebox with the word "deliverance" written all around it. They're kind of like my ark, a reminder of God's presence and the life I owe to him." –Stanley Praimnath, a 9/11 Survivor
"We got buried under more rubble, and I remember saying to myself, you can't be lucky enough to survive it twice. And I started to pray. When the thing settled down, and the rubble stopped piling up on top of us, I was still alive." - Frank Razzano, 9/11 Survivor
"I was in New York on September 11 when those planes hit the World Trade Center. At the time, it seemed like it was a local thing. But three or four days later, by the time we drove across the country in the bus, we realized it wasn't a local thing. You could really feel the States become united. We became the United States of America." - John Madden
"September 11 was, and remains, above all an immense human tragedy. But September 11 also posed a momentous and deliberate challenge not just to America but to the world at large. The target of the terrorists was not only New York and Washington but the very values of freedom, tolerance, and decency which underpin our way of life." – Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
"Grief is the price we pay for love." - Queen Elizabeth II's Message to New York in the Aftermath of 9/11
"I was walking in the street right next to the firemen going directly into the area from which everyone else was evacuating. I could see the fearless intensity in their faces. They were going to put out the fire and save lives." - Bob Swierupski, a 9/11 Survivor
Why am I here? What is the reason I was saved? They're really unanswerable questions. After going through something like we did, all you can do is try to live your best life from day to day and move forward with gratitude." — Brian Clark, a World Trade Center survivor
"Where were you when the world stopped turning, on that September day?" — Alan Jackson