Poignant voices from the Sept. 11 memorials

“You are America’s young Jedi.”

“I hope you are rocking and rolling with Elvis!”

“Thank you for the pennies; [we] love finding them.”

“We miss your laughter, your smile and your meatloaf.”

“I hope you are on beautiful golf course with Dad up in Heaven. Send me a rainbow so I know you are OK.”

Relatives of Sept. 11 victims, addressing their lost loved ones

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“These past 10 years tell a story of resilience. Our people still work in skyscrapers. Our stadiums are filled with fans, and our parks full of children playing ball. Our airports hum with travel, and our buses and subways take millions where they need to go. Families sit down to Sunday dinner, and students prepare for school. This land pulses with the optimism of those who set out for distant shores, and the courage of those who died for human freedom.”

President Obama, at Sunday night’s “Concert of Hope” at the Kennedy Center in Washington

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“I pray that our heavenly father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement.”

Former President George W. Bush, reading from Abraham Lincoln’s letter to a mother of five sons who died during the Civil War

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“Those in this building that day knew what they were witnessing: It was a declaration of war, by stateless actors bent on changing our way of life, who believed that these horrible acts of terror directed against innocents could buckle our knees, could bend our will, to begin to break us, break our resolve. They did not know us.”

Vice President Joe Biden, at the Pentagon

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“You don’t go on. You go forward. You move forward. There’s no moving on when something like this happens.”

Joan Tempestilli, whose son-in-law died at the Pentagon

Times staff and wire reports