March 10

How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.

Ronald Reagan, 40^th President 1981-1989

March 9

Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.

John F. Kennedy, 35^th President, 1961-1963

Remarks in Nashville at the 90th Anniversary Convocation of Vanderbilt University, May 18, 1963. On college campuses, the month of May is generally one of celebration as students graduate, earn their diplomas, and move on into adulthood and participate in society. Kennedy congratulates the leaders of Nashville and the state of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University and its graduates on its 90th anniversary. He pairs his congratulations with an educated citizen's obligations. Kennedy speaks only two weeks after other students in Birmingham, Alabama, a three hour drive to the south, had demonstrated and marched for civil rights. Those students and their demonstration had been broken up by police dogs and fire hoses. Kennedy acknowledges the challenge and tension of the times and puts the roles of a university and education in perspective: "We live in an age of movement and change, both evolutionary and revolutionary, both good and evil--and in such an age a university has a special obligation to hold fast to the best of the past and move fast to the best of the future." Kennedy states that not only do Americans have rights but that we also have responsibilities. "...liberty and learning will be and must be the touchstones of Vanderbilt University and of any free university in this country or the world." "This State, this city, this campus, have stood long for both human rights and human enlightenment--and let that forever be true. This Nation is now engaged in a continuing debate about the rights of a portion of its citizens. That will go on, and those rights will expand until the standard first forged by the Nation's founders has been reached, and all Americans enjoy equal opportunity and liberty under law...But this Nation was not founded solely on the principle of citizens' rights. Equally important, though too often not discussed, is the citizen's responsibility. For our privileges can be no greater than our obligations. The protection of our rights can endure no longer than the performance of our responsibilities. Each can be neglected only at the peril of the other." He lays out three basic tenets that an educated citizen ought to follow: "Of the many special obligations incumbent upon an educated citizen, I would cite three as outstanding: your obligation to the pursuit of learning, your obligation to serve the public, your obligation to uphold the law." Speaking from political experience, Kennedy encourages the students to engage in public service and not merely seek profit and security for themselves. The rewards would not necessarily be monetary. "You will find the pressures greater than the pay. You may endure more public attacks than support. But you will have the unequaled satisfaction of knowing that your character and talent are contributing to the direction and success of this free society." He concludes by saying the educated citizen has the obligation to uphold the law. He states, "... the educated citizen has a special responsibility by the virtue of his greater understanding.", and that, "He knows, too, that every fellowman is entitled to be regarded with decency and treated with dignity." Kennedy equates liberty with learning and rights with responsibilities. He puts forth a vision that the university and its students will "uphold learning, encourage public service, and teach respect for the law. It will neither turn its back on proven wisdom or turn its face from newborn challenge." (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=9218&st=liberty&st1=learning)

March 8

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

George Washington, 1^st President, 1789-1797

March 7

Learned institutions ought to be the favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.

James Madison, 4^th President, 1809-1817

March 6

It is a damn poor mind indeed which can’t think of at least two ways to spell a word.

Andrew Jackson, 7^th President, 1829-1837

March 5

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study on geography, natural history, agriculture and commerce in order to give their children the right to study painting, poetry, music, and architecture.

John Adams, 2^nd President, 1797-1801

March 4

This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in.

Theodore Roosevelt, 26^th President, 1901-1909

March 3

Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.

James A. Garfield, 20^th President, 1881

March 2

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

Thomas Jefferson, 3^rd President, 1801-1809

March 1: Education

You cannot evade the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

Abraham Lincoln, 16^th President, 1861-1865

February 29

Three things can ruin a man. Power, money, and women. I never wanted power, I never had any money, and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now. 

Harry S. Truman, 33^rd President, 1945-1953




Those who sought to criticize Truman, said he gained his stature only because he was a product of the "political system" in Kansas City. 
He was very successful, however, as a Judge and administrator there. He developed a modern highway system, had a new courthouse designed and built, and was very conscientious about being fair and honest, and being above reproach about his conduct. 
In Truman, by David McCullough, an incident is recalled where in responding to a call for a meeting in a room at the Baltimore Hotel, he asked Edgar Hinde, a friend, to go along, just in case. When they knocked at the room , Hinde remembered, a blond woman in a negligee opened the door. (Truman) spun on his heels and ran back down the hall, disappearing around the corner."


McCullough, David; Truman; Simon & Schuster, New York, New York, 1992

p 771, declined to run for 3rd term, potsdam conference offered "company" pps 440-450?

February 28

The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered…deeply, finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

George Washington, 1^st President, 1789-1797

February 27

All great change in America happens at the dinner table.

Ronald Reagan, 40^th President, 1981-1989

February 26

Always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. Those that hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Richard M. Nixon, 37^th President, 1969-1974

February 24

It is of no use to preach to (children) if you do not act decently yourself.

Theodore Roosevelt, 26^th President, 1901-1909

February 23

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.

John Quincy Adams, 6^th President, 1825-1829

February 22, 1732- Birthdate of George Washington

We cannot hope for the blessings of heaven on our army if we insult it by our impiety and folly.

1^st President, 1789-1797, Died December 14, 1799

February 21

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.

Thomas Jefferson, 3^rd President, 1801-1809

February 20

Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire; what led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation…our destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is; who have courage to remake the world as it should be.

Barack Obama, 44^th President, 2009-

February 19

God is not on the side of any nation, yet we know He is on the side of justice. Our finest moments as a nation have come when we faithfully served the cause of justice for our own citizens, and for the people of other lands.

George W. Bush, 43^rd President, 2001-2009

February 18

I refuse to be part of a generation that celebrates the death of communism abroad with the loss of the American dream at home.

Bill Clinton, 42^nd President, 1993-2001

February 17

And so, as they climb the ladder of achievement, I’d simply say, “What happens in your home is more important than what happens in the White House.”

George H.W. Bush, 41^st President, 1989-1993

-From an Interview given June 2, 1995, Williamsburg, Virginia.-Bush was born in 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts to Senator Prescott Bush and his wife, Dorothy(Walker)Bush. He attended school in Andover, Massachusetts and was captain of the Varsity Baseball and Soccer teams. After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, trained as a pilot at was commissioned at age 19, becoming the youngest aviator in the Navy at that time. He flew 58 combat missions and received The Distinguished Flying Cross. After returning home, he married Barbara Pierce and attended Yale University, graduating in two and one half years with a degree in Economics. A left handed first baseman, he captained the Yale Baseball team and participated in the first two College World Series. He was also initiated into the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale. After graduating he started an oil business in Texas and started his political career as a Congressman. He served as Vice President under Ronald Reagan before being elected President in 1988. This quote is actually attributed to his wife, Barbara, from her speech to the graduates of Wellesley Women's College in June, 1990."...As important as your obligations as a doctor, lawyer or business leader will be, you are a human being first. And these human connections with spouse, with children and with friends are the most important investments you will ever make.... At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child or a parent. One thing will never change. Fathers and Mothers, if you have children, they must come first. You must read to your children, you must hug your children and you must love your children…. Your success as a family, our success as a society depends not what happens at the White House, but what happens inside YOUR house.” George finishes the thought with, "And it's true. It's so 100 percent true. And that means we -- each of these achievers -- must find some way, not only stay in touch with family, but to help others who might not be blessed with family. To strengthen the American family...and it's not the glamour of the Presidency, or the wonder of going to receive the Nobel Prize. All those are important, of course. But maybe it's just that I'm 71 years old now. It's family, and it's faith, and it's friends. I would tell them that. Don't forget that. In your brilliance, don't turn your back on your friends. Don't think you're entitled to something, because you're smarter than the next guy." from an interview with the Academy of Achievement,http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/printmember/bus0int-1.

February 16

Freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

Ronald Reagan, 40^th President, 1981-1989

-From a speech now entitled "Encroaching Control", before the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce on March 30, 1961.-Reagan is widely known as an actor turned politician who was elected governor of California and President of the United States. What may not be so widely known is that while he was President of the Screen Actors Guild, he dealt with a Communist infiltration into the movie industry. The battle begun there would greatly influence his ideas and beliefs as he entered upon the state and then national scene. Before he was elected governor he spoke in favor of freedom, anti-communism, and conservative government. Such themes carried him to the highest office in the land. Here he speaks in Phoenix, Arizona, home of the conservative Presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater.-"...But a few years ago, a funny thing happened to us on the way to the theater. For the first time, we ran into ugly reality face-to-face. While we were blissfully going along in our make believe world, on direct orders of the International Communist party, hardcore professional party organizers had infiltrated our industry, had worked quietly to create cells in some of our guilds and unions and communist front organizations which had deceived many of our people into supporting their apparently worthwhile causes. The aim of this communist infiltration was to subvert our screens to the dissemination of communist propaganda only after they had gained economic control of our industry... Lenin, in 1923, said, "We will take Eastern Europe, we will organize the hordes of Asia and we won't have to take the United States. We will surround it and that last bastion of capitalism will fall into our outstretched hand like overripe fruit." Well, they've taken Eastern Europe. They are organizing the hordes of Asia around the red colossus of China...Cuba is a Russian beach head 90 miles off our Florida coast and more telling that even that, 250,000 communist professional organizers are scattered up and down the length and breadth of Latin America. Discussing other weapons and their effectiveness against us, Bulganin said "We can't appeal to the American working man, he's too well fed. But when, through inflation, America has priced herself out of the world markets, and unemployment follows, then we will settle our debt with the United States."...Lenin, determined the idea that the communist party never would be a large party. That it would be a hard, small, professional cadre. That only those people who had proven themselves would be allowed membership and this small professional cadre would, as he said, manipulate and use the masses when they were needed and he referred to us as the masses, we were the willing idiots...Nikita Khrushchev said, "We can't expect the American people to jump from capitalism to communism but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of socialism until one day they will awaken to find they have communism."... James Madison speaking before the Virginia convention in 1788 said, "Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation."..Our Founding Fathers, here in this country, brought about the only true revolution that has ever taken place in man's history. Every other revolution simply exchanged one set of rulers for another set of rulers. But only here did that little band of men so advanced beyond their time that the world has never seen their like since, evolve the idea that you and I have within ourselves the God-given right and the ability to determine our own destiny. But freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction... The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well thought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don't do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free. Thank You.