"Character is like a tree and reputation is like its
shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real
thing."
Abraham Lincoln
"The four cornerstones of character on which the
structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination,
Individuality and Independence."
Captain Edward Rickenbacker
The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the
conduct of one hour.
Author Unknown
The Seven Modern Sins
Policies without principles
Pleasure without conscience
Wealth without work
Knowledge without character
Industry without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice
Author Unknown
It's not what you'd do with a million,
If riches should be your lot,
But what you're doing at present
With the dollar and half you've got.
Author Unknown
There are too many people praying for mountains of difficulty
to be removed, when what they really need is courage to climb
them.
Author Unknown
Mud thrown is ground lost.
Author Unknown
"No man can hold another man in the gutter without
remaining there himself."
Booker T. Washington
It is all very well to be pleasant,
When life goes along like a song.
But the man worthwhile, is the man who can smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
Author Unknown
Last, but by no means least, courage-moral courage, the
courage of one's convictions, the courage to see things through.
The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It's the
age-old struggle-one struggle-the roar of the crowd on one side
and the voice of your conscience on the other.
General Douglas MacArthur
Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got hold of for a moment and I want to make it burn
as brightly as possible before handing it on to future
generations.
George Bernard Shaw
As long as our government is administered for the good of the
people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to
us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience
and of the press, it will be worth defending.
President Andrew Jackson
What then is the American, this new man? I could point out to
you a man, whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was
Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four
sons have now four wives of different nations. Here individuals
of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors
and posterity will one day cause a great change in the world. The
American is a new man, who acts upon new principles; he must
therefore entertain new ideas, and form new opinions. From
involuntary idleness, servile dependence, penury, and useless
labor, he has passed to toils of a very different nature,
rewarded by ample subsistence -- This is an American.
Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, 1782
A nation is made great, not by its fruitful acres, but by the
men who cultivate them; not by its great forests, but by the men
who use them; not by its mines, but by the men who build and run
them. America was a great land when Columbus discovered it --
Americans have made of it a great nation.
Lyman Abbott
Not gold, but only men can make
A nation great and strong;
men who for truth and honor's sake,
Stand fast and suffer long.
Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others shy,
They build a nation's pillars deep,
And lift them to the sky.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Inscription At Mount Vernon
Washington, the brave, the wise, the good,
Supreme in war, in council, and in peace,
Valiant without ambition, discreet without fear,
Confident without presumption.
In disaster, calm; in success, moderate; in all,
himself.
The hero, the patriot, the Christian,
The father of nations, the friend of all mankind,
Who, when he had won all, renounced all,
And sought in the bosom of his family and of
nature, retirement,
And in the hope of religion, immortality.
To Be An American
I wish to dream and build,
To fail and to succeed.
I want to earn my daily bread,
Not have existence guaranteed.
I want to face life's challenges;
Stand unafraid, erect and proud,
To think for myself and to act
American: free, unkempt, unbowed.
I do not wish my freedom
Nor my dignity to trade
Or barter for a dole,
The precedents my fathers made.
And so I face the world
To boldly and unhumbled say:
'I will not bow nor cower
For any master or tyrant/s way.'
Lucille McBroom Crumley
America Begins At Home
America begins at home
With every child's need
For guidance and direction
In establishing a creed.
The roots that shape America
Are formed most surely where
A child spends the vital years
Within his parents' care
Perhaps the close-knit family
Where each one has a task
Does more to aid America
Than anyone could ask.
Responsibilities at home
Build roots both firm and strong,
To guide our future leaders
In whatever comes along.
To work and strive is no disgrace,
Instead it is a joy
To build a great America
That cannot be destroyed.
This beautiful America,
So blessed with liberty,
Begins at home -- its true success
Depends on you and me.
Craig Sathoff
The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature. The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem -- Here is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations -- Here is the hospitality which forever indicates heroes.
Other states indicate themselves in their deputies -- but the
genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives
or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges or
churches or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors --
but -- always most in the common people. Their manners, speech,
dress, friendships -- their deathless attachment to freedom --
their aversion to anything indecorous or soft or mean -- their
fierceness of their roused resentment -- their self-esteem and
wonderful sympathy -- the air they have of persons who never knew
how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors -- the fluency
of their speech-these too are unrhymed poetry.
Walt Whitman
"I believe in honesty, sincerity, and the square deal;
in making up one's mind what to do-and doing it.
I believe in fearing God and taking one's own part.
I believe in hitting the line hard when you are right.
I believe in speaking softly and carrying a big stick.
I believe in hard work and honest sport.
I believe in a sane mind in a sane body.
I believe we have room for but one soul loyalty,
and that is loyalty to the American people.
President Theodore Roosevelt
What is our heritage?
As I see it, it is the nobility of purpose which guided our founding fathers when they pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor to the support of a nation then unborn. It is the tingling thrill of pride when we step upon the hallowed grounds of Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell or right here where George Washington and his beleaguered troops survived a critical period of our Revolutionary War.
It is the reverence and humility with which we look upon the handiwork of God when we view the Grand Canyon, the Rockies, the Great Plains and the mighty rivers of our land.
Nobility, pride, humility, reverenceŠthese are America's virtues.
This is her heritage.
General Omar Bradley
"Whatever you have received more than others in health,
in talents, in ability, in success, in a pleasant childhood, in
harmonious conditions of home life, all this you must not take to
yourself as a matter of course. You must pay a price for it. You
must render an unusually great sacrifice of your life for other
life."
Schweitzer
"Our country does not ask us to die for her welfare, she
asks us to live for her and so to live and so to act that our
government may be pure, her officers honest and every corner of
her territory shall be a place fit to grow the best men and women
who shall rule over her."
Mary McDowell
When little things would irk me, and I grow
Impatient with my dear ones, make me know
How in a moment joy can take its flight
And happiness be quenched in endless night.
Keep this thought with me all the livelong day
That I may guard the harsh words I might say
When I would fret and grumble, fiery hot,
At trifles that tomorrow are forgot-
Let me remember, Lord, how it would be
If these, my loved ones, were not here with me.
Author Unknown
'Twas a sheep, not a lamb, that strayed away,
In the parable Jesus told-
A grown-up sheep that had gone astray
From the ninety and nine in the fold.
Out in the meadows, out in the cold,
'Twas a sheep the good shepherd sought,
And back in the flock, safe into the fold,
'Twas a sheep the good shepherd brought.
And why for the sheep should we earnestly long,
And as earnestly hope and pray?
Because there is danger, if they go wrong,
They will lead the young lambs astray.
For the lambs will follow the sheep, you know,
Wherever the sheep may stray:
If the sheep go wrong, it will not be long
Till the lambs are as wrong as they.
And so with the sheep we earnestly plead,
For the sake of the lambs today:
If the lambs are lost, what a terrible cost
Some sheep will have to pay!
Author Unknown
In the long fight for righteousness the watchword for all of
us is spend and be spent. It is a little matter whether any one
man fails or succeeds; but the cause shall not fail, for it is
the cause of mankind. We, here in America, hold in our hands the
hope of the world, the fate of the coming years; and shame and
disgrace will be ours if in our eyes the light of high resolve is
dimmed, if we trail in the dust the golden hopes of men. If on
this new continent we merely build another country of great but
unjustly divided material prosperity, we shall have done nothing;
and we shall do as little if we merely set the greed of envy
against the greed of arrogance, and thereby destroy the material
well-being of all of us.
President Theodore Roosevelt
The following was written in 1781 by Elizabeth Hutchinson
Jackson to her son, Andrew Jackson:
Andrew, if I should not see you again, I wish you to remember and treasure up some things I have already said to you: In this world you will have to make your own way. To do that you must have friends. You can make friends by being honest and you can keep them by being steadfast. You must keep in mind that friends worth having will in the long run expect as much from you as they give to you. To forget an obligation or be ungrateful for a kindness is a base crime-not merely a fault or a sin, but an actual crime. Men guilty of it sooner or later must suffer the penalty. In personal conduct be always polite but never obsequious. None will respect you more than you respect yourself. Avoid quarrels as long as you can without yielding to imposition. But sustain your manhood always. Never bring a suit in law for assault and battery or for defamation. The law affords no remedy for such outrages that can satisfy the feelings of a true man. Never wound the feelings of others. Never brook wanton outrage upon your own feelings. If you ever have to vindicate your feelings or defend your honor, do it calmly. If angry at first, wait till your wrath cools before you proceed.
MY SON
June Grady
I do not pray for him that life be easy,
Rather would I ask that he be strong.
I do not pray for days that brim with laughter,
Since only fools find naught in life but song.
I do not ask for grace so much as wisdom;
I do not ask for charm so much as love;
I ask Thee not for wealth, but understanding,
And peace of mind that cometh from above.
I would not have him be an idle dreamer,
But give him faith that he can reach his goal.
If he should find ability be lacking,
May diligence at length restore his soul.
I do not pray his life will be a long one,
I only ask that it be richly spent.
If he can face reality with truth, God.
He'll be a man, and I shall be content.
What Is A Boy?
He is a person who is going to carry on what you have started.
He is to sit right where you are sitting and attend when you are gone to those things you think are so important.
You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they will be carried out depends upon him.
Even if you make leagues and treaties, he will have to manage them.
he is going to sit at your desk in the Senate, and occupy your place on the Supreme Bench.
He will assume control of your cities, states, and nation.
He is going to move in and take over your prisons, churches, schools, universities, and corporations.
All your work is going to be judged and praised or condemned by him.
Your reputation and your future are in his hands.
All your work is for him, and the fate of the nation and of humanity is in his hands.
So it might be well to pay him some attention.
Author Unknown
Legacy
Helen Williams
To you, my child, I leave a heritage that none can take from you, but which you can blindly relinquish or carelessly give away. It is the gift of being born in the very shadow of Old Glory -- the privilege of looking up at Columbia's flaming torch and knowing she holds it aloft to guide you. It is the legacy of streets paved not with gold, but opportunity. It is the endowment of the spirit of men who held the bridge at Concord; who asked for liberty or death in the threatening shadows of war; who followed a barefoot trail of freedom at Valley Forge and crossed on icy rivers with the songs of Christmas mingling with the glorious anthems of a promised liberty.
I give you the prayers and hopes and dreams of the immigrant, who cast aside his shackles to bask in the safety and liberty of a young but gallant land. I bequeath to you the myriad web of laboratories and factories, stores and offices, where free men work together. Into your hands I put the gift of the greatest freedom, the most exciting progress, the golden dreams, for they are yours, as an American, but they cannot be purchased by men in even great and progressive lands abroad!
To you I give the heritage of a native freeborn American, before whose feet stretches a road of endless opportunity, if you are strong enough, proud enough and, most important of all, ambitious enough to grasp it. I give you the flag of broad stripes and bright stars, which has stood for freedom and justice for nearly two centuries. I give you the parchment rolls of Declaration and Constitution, whose words are scoffed at by the radical, yet claimed as a refuge by the traitor!
Into your hands I put the banner of patriots, who have marched before you -- Washington, Jefferson and Lee -- Henry, Franklin and Revere -- Adams, Jones and Hale -- a thousand whose names glorify the history books and even thousands more who never made the roll of fame, but risked their lives and fortunes for their dreams and their principles, that America might live.
It is all yours, my child, and only you, yourself, can relinquish it or sell it; or, as I hope you will, keep it safe to pass on to your children, even as I pass it on to you. You can cherish it in the way you climb toward success -- how you raise your hand to salute our flag -- how you repeat your prayers in the church of your choice. You can safeguard it through your cross on the ballot and your willingness to bear arms, if need be, to protect our shores. So too, you can give it up just as easily, by placing it as an ugly burnt offering on a crimson altar, by singing songs of hate, or chanting, like a robot, that it cannot happen here. You will find that chains fasten easily around your wrists, and in the dim scarlet dusk, take on the glitter of golden bracelets. But once they snap shut, they are rent asunder with difficulty, and sometimes never.
Take it, my child, this gleaming heritage that is wrapped in folds of red and white and blue, and guard it carefully. Because once you give it up you may find that it is gone forever!
"The theory that children should be made to feel
absolutely secure and perpetually surrounded by love used to
strike me as dubious. It would give them, it seemed to me, a very
false idea of what the world is like, would prepare them very
badly for the shock of discovering that love cannot be taken for
granted and that environments are not always propitious. But
perhaps perfect security at the right time makes for boldness in
the future, and perhaps to meet distress too early is to be made
forever timid."
Joseph Wood Krutch
A CHILD
If a child lives with criticism he learns
to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility he learns
to fight.
If a child lives with fear he learns to
be apprehensive.
If a child lives with pity he learns to
feel sorry for himself.
If a child lives with jealousy he learns
to hate.
If a child lives with encouragement he
learns to be confident.
If a child lives with praise he learns to
be appreciative.
If a child lives with approval he learns
to like himself.
If a child lives with recognition he
learns to have a goal.
If a child lives with fairness he learns
justice.
If a child lives with friendliness he
learns that the world is a nice
place in which to live.
Author Unknown
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