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The 10 Cannot's of Abraham Lincoln
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
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The universe
is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with
it its own peculiar lesson. The mountain teaches stability and grandeur; the
ocean immensity and change. Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds,
stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes--every form of
animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man. Keep away
from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that,
but the really great ones make you feel that you too, can become great. The future
belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. I am a little pencil in the
hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world. People are often unreasonable,
illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people
may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are
successful you will win some false friends and true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank
anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be
happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do
good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway You see, in the final analysis, it
is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway. If people are coming to work
excited . . . if they're making mistakes freely and fearlessly . . . if
they're having fun . . . if they're concentrating doing things, rather than
preparing reports and going to meetings - then somewhere you have leaders.
Watch your thoughts; they
become words. To handle yourself, use your
head; to handle others, use your heart. You cannot raise a man up by
calling him down. Government's view of the
economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If
it keeps moving,regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." I have wondered at times what
the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through
the U.S. Congress. "We establish no religion in this country, nor will we ever. We command no worship. We mandate no belief. But we poison our society when we remove its theological underpinnings. We court corruption when we leave it bereft of belief. All are free to believe or not believe; all are free to practice a faith or not. But those who believe must be free to speak of and act on their belief, to apply moral teaching to public questions. I submit to you that the tolerant society is open to and encouraging of all religions. And this does not weaken us; it strengthens us, it makes us strong. You know, if we look back through history to all those great civilizations, those great nations that rose up to even world dominance and then deteriorated, declined, and fell, we find they all had one thing in common. One of the significant forerunners of their fall was their turning away from their God or gods. Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under. If I could just make a personal statement of my own -- in these 3 1/2 years I have understood and known better than ever before the words of Lincoln, when he said that he would be the greatest fool on this footstool called Earth if he ever thought that for one moment he could perform the duties of that office without help from One who is stronger than all. There are no such things as limits to growth, because there
are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and
wonder. The best and most beautiful
things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with
the heart. Optimism is the faith that
leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope or confidence. No pessimist ever discovered
the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an unchartered land, or opened a new
heaven to the human spirit. Character cannot be developed
in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the
soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. The most pathetic person in the
world is someone who has sight but has no vision. Science may have found a cure
for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all- the
apathy of human beings. Without love, benevolence
becomes egotism The ultimate measure of a man
is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he
stands at times of challenge and controversy. Like an unchecked cancer, hate
corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a
man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the
beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with
the false and the false with the true. Power at its best is love
implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting
everything that stands against love. Life's most persistent and
urgent question is: What are you doing for others? Without justice, there can be
no peace. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who
helps to perpetrate it. God always answers our prayer.
Either He changes the circumstances, or He supplies sufficient power to
overcome them. How unfair! Only one health,
and so many diseases. Thanks to modern medicine we
are no longer forced to endure prolonged pain, disease, discomfort and
wealth. Scratch a dog and you'll find a
permanent job. The voice of intelligence ...
is drowned out by the roar of fear. It is ignored by the voice of desire. It
is contradicted by the voice of shame. It is biased by hate and extinguished
by anger. Most of all it is silenced by ignorance. "Love is a medicine for the sickness of the world; a prescription often given, too rarely taken." --Dr. Karl Menninger "One does not fall into love; one grows into love, and love grows in him." --Dr. Karl Menninger
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