Presidential Proverbs Daily: The Price of Success

Presidential Proverbs Daily: The Price of Success: Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or evil, we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, o...

Presidential Proverbs Daily: June 20"Our problems are man made, therefore they ...

JFK  Cold War quote and a view of his Presidential pace and itinerary:





Presidential Proverbs Daily: June 20"Our problems are man made, therefore they ...: June 20 "Our problems are man made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destin...

Presidential Proverbs Daily: May 29, 1917- Birthdate of John Fitzgerald Kennedy...

Presidential Proverbs Daily: May 29, 1917- Birthdate of John Fitzgerald Kennedy...: May 29, 1917- Birthdate of John Fitzgerald Kennedy- "The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word, ‘crisis’. One brush stroke s...

Presidential Proverbs Daily: May 14-And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what y...

Presidential Proverbs Daily: May 14-And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what y...: May 14- And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your country…My fellow citizens of t...

Presidential Proverbs Daily: March 26

Presidential Proverbs Daily: March 26: The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all. John F. Kennedy, 35th President, 1961-1963- Remarks in Nashville at...

Presidential Proverbs Daily: October 18

Presidential Proverbs Daily: October 18: "We ought to be persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of o...

January 27

"Is America a weakling, to shrink from the work of the great world powers? No! …Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race."

Theodore Roosevelt, 25^th President, 1901-1909

- apparently from a letter to John Hay, written June 7, 1897. John Hay was Ambassador to Great Britain and Roosevelt was Secretary of the Navy under president William McKinley. Hay was actually from Illinois and studied law in Abraham Lincoln's law office and had been Lincoln's secretary during his presidency. Under McKinley the United States began exert more influence on the international stage, driven by the idea of "Manifest Destiny", which held that the United States needed to expand its influence so as to not be dominated by or surrounded by European territories. Roosevelt became McKinley's Vice President in 1901 and shortly thereafter became President when McKinley was assassinated. Roosevelt most certainly advocated and greatly expanded the influence of the United States.

January 27 Is America a weakling, to shrink from the work of the great world powers? No! …Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.Theodore Roosevelt, 25th President, 1901-1909

Presidential Proverbs Daily: September 26

Presidential Proverbs Daily: September 26: "When there is lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned." Herbert Hoover, 31st President, 1929-1933. Most ...

Presidential Proverbs Daily: September 25

Presidential Proverbs Daily: September 25: "You don't win campaigns with a diet of dish water and milk toast." Richard Nixon, 37th President, 1969-1974- It seems the more things cha...

July 31 If there is not the war, you don’t get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don’t get the great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President, 1901-1909 The Conditions of Success, An Address at the Cambridge Union, May 26, 1910 I have spoken only of the great successes; but what I have said applies just as much to the success that is within the reach of almost every one of us. I think that any man who has had what is regarded in the world as great success must realize the the element of chance has played a great part in it. Of course a man has to take advantage of his opportunities; but the opportunities have to come. There are two kinds of success. One is the very rare kind that comes to the man who has the power to do what no one else has the power to do. That is genius. The average man who is successful,_the average statesman, the average public servant, the average soldier, who wins what we call great success_is not a genius. He is a man who has merely the ordinary qualities that he shares with his fellows, but who has developed those ordinary qualities to a more than ordinary degree.

July 30 Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom. Our own free constitutions were not the offspring of our Revolution. They existed before. Millard Fillmore, 13th President, 1850-1853 State of the Union 1852 France had no sooner established a republican form of government than she manifested a desire to force its blessings on all the world. In less than ten years her Government was changed from a republic to an empire, and finally, after shedding rivers of blood, foreign powers restored her exiled dynasty and exhausted Europe sought peace and repose in the unquestioned ascendency of monarchical principles. Let us learn wisdom from her example. Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom. Our own free institutions were not the offspring of our Revolution. They existed before. They were planted in the free charters of self-government under which the English colonies grew up, and our Revolution only freed us from the dominion of a foreign power whose government was at variance with those institutions. But European nations have had no such training for self-government, and every effort to establish it by bloody revolutions has been, and must without that preparation continue to be, a failure. Liberty unregulated by law degenerates into anarchy, which soon becomes the most horrid of all despotisms.

July 29 We must strengthen the ability of free nations everywhere to develop their independence and raise their standard of living, and thereby frustrate those who prey on poverty and chaos. To do this, the rich must help the poor and we must do our part. Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President, 1963-1969 First State of the Union Address delivered 8 January 1964 For our ultimate goal is a world without war, a world made safe for diversity, in which all men, goods, and ideas can freely move across every border and every boundary. Third, we must make increased use of our food as an instrument of peace -- making it available by sale or trade or loan or donation-to hungry people in all nations which tell us of their needs and accept proper conditions of distribution. Eighth, we must strengthen the ability of free nations everywhere to develop their independence and raise their standard of living, and thereby frustrate those who prey on poverty and chaos. To do this, the rich must help the poor -- and we must do our part. We must achieve a more rigorous administration of our development assistance, with larger roles for private investors, for other industrialized nations, and for international agencies and for the recipient nations themselves.

July 28 In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves…self discipline with all came first. Harry S. Truman, 33rd President, 1945-1953 Corresponding Biblical Proverb: "A patient man is better than a warrior, and he who rules his temper, than he who takes a city." Proverbs 16:32

July 27 Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of government is the history of resistance. The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of government, not the increase of it. Woodrow Wilson, 28th President, 1913-1921 In 1912, former president Theodore Roosevelt sought the Republican nomination at the convention in Chicago. He was infuriated by what he took to be betrayal of his progressive program by his personally chosen successor, the incumbent William Howard Taft. The delegates chose Taft and former New York congressman James "Sunny Jim" Sherman as his running mate. Roosevelt and his supporters bolted, then formed the Progressive Party, popularly known as the Bull Moose Party. TR's running mate was California governor Hiram Johnson. The Democrats were elated by the Republican split, realizing that their opponents' 16-year rule was at an end. The only real suspense was generated around the question of which Democrat would be the next president. After 46 ballots, the exhausted delegates finally selected Woodrow Wilson and Indiana governor Thomas R. Marshall as his running mate.http://www.u-s-history.com

July 26 Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. John F. Kennedy, 35th President, 1961-1963 Delivered at The White House, Washington D.C. on 13 March 1962 Together, the free nations of the Hemisphere pledged their resources and their energies to the Alliance for Progress. Together they pledged to accelerate economic and social development and to make the basic reforms that are necessary to ensure that all would participate in the fruits of this development. Together they pledged to modernize tax structures and land tenure - to wipe out illiteracy and ignorance - to promote health and provide decent housing - to solve the problems of commodity stabilization - to maintain sound fiscal and monetary policies - to secure the contributions of private enterprise to development - to speed the economic integration of Latin America. And together they established the basic institutional framework for this immense, decade-long development. For too long my country, the wealthiest nation in a continent which is not wealthy, failed to carry out its full responsibilities to its sister Republics. We have now accepted that responsibility. In the same way those who possess wealth and power in poor nations must accept their own responsibilities. They must lead the fight for those basic reforms which alone can preserve the fabric of their societies. Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

July 25 Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men. Gerald R. Ford, 38th President, 1974-1977 Remarks By Gerald Ford On Taking the Oath Of Office As President The oath that I have taken is the same oath that was taken by George Washington and by every President under the Constitution. But I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances never before experienced by Americans. This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts. I have not sought this enormous responsibility, but I will not shirk it. Those who nominated and confirmed me as Vice President were my friends and are my friends. They were of both parties, elected by all the people and acting under the Constitution in their name. It is only fitting then that I should pledge to them and to you that I will be the President of all the people. I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our Government but civilization itself. That bond, though strained, is unbroken at home and abroad. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy. Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency on August 9, 1974 and Gerald Ford ascended to the office after he had recently been appointed Vice-President after the resignation of previous vice-President, Spiro T. Agnew.

July 24 Preparation for war is a constant stimulus to suspicion and ill will. James Monroe, 5th President, 1817-1825 On April 20, 1817, the Rush-Bagot Treaty was signed between the U.S. and Great Britain – one of the first acts of Monroe’s first presidential term. The treaty regulated naval armaments on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain after the War of 1812, demilitarizing the border between the U.S. and Canada. It created the world’s longest east-west boundary (5,527 miles), which is also said to be the world’s largest demilitarized zone.

July 23 We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength; they are invited by the perception of weakness. And the surest way to avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans…so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities. George W. Bush, 43rd President, 2001-2009 Text of George W Bush's Speech on Iraq Sunday, September 7, 2003 Address of the President to the Nation The Cabinet Room Address to update the public on the war on terrorism Two years ago, I told the Congress and the country that the war on terror would be a lengthy war, a different kind of war, fought on many fronts in many places. Iraq is now the central front. Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there -- and there they must be defeated. This will take time and require sacrifice. Yet we will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom and to make our own nation more secure. The people of Iraq are emerging from a long trial. For them, there will be no going back to the days of the dictator, to the miseries and humiliation he inflicted on that good country. For the Middle East and the world, there will be no going back to the days of fear, when a brutal and aggressive tyrant possessed terrible weapons. And for America, there will be no going back to the era before September the 11th, 2001 -- to false comfort in a dangerous world. We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength; they are invited by the perception of weakness. And the surest way to avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans. We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities

July 22 Communist leaders believe in Lenin’s precept: Probe with bayonets. If you encounter mush, proceed; if you encounter steel, withdraw. Richard M. Nixon, 37th President, 1969-1974 Well, let me go back historically to how this all relates to Vietnam. President Kennedy met Khrushchev at Vienna. And Scotty Reston of The New York Times reported that sk--Khrushchev bullied him, Khrushchev following the usual Leninist dictum, which says, "Probe with bayonets. If you find mush, proceed. If you find steel, withdraw." Now, President Kennedy was not a weak man. He was not a soft man. He was a tough guy, and after all these things happening, he was determined that Khrushchev, and the Communists generally, should not assume that they had found mush. Now that, of course--if--you have to understand that to understand why he felt it was important to increase the number of Americans in Vietnam. That was why he thought it was important to as--have these Americans participate in military exercise, even though it cost some casualties. Day 2, Tape 1 00:31:34 [Frank Gannon] THE NIXON/GANNON INTERVIEWS