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It Is History That Teaches Us To Hope
“My experience of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them or indisposed me to serve them; nor in spite of failures, which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge; or of the present aspect of affairs; do I despair of the future.
The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow, and our desires so impatient; the work of progress is so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope.”
– Robert E. Lee,
letter to Lieutenant Colonel Charles Marshall, 1870*Painting of Robert E. Lee by Edward Caledon Bruce, 1865 (source)
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Every Man Has It In Him
“Success does not lie entirely in the hands of any one of us. From the day the tower of Siloam fell, misfortune has fallen sometimes upon the just as well as the unjust. We sometimes see the good man, the honest man, the strong man, broken down by forces over which he had no control. If the hand of the Lord is heavy upon us the strength and wisdom of man shall avail nothing. But as a rule in the long run each of us comes pretty near to getting what he deserves. Each of us can, as a rule there are, of course, exceptions finally achieve the success best worth having, the success of having played his part honestly and manfully; of having lived so as to feel at the end he has done his duty; of having been a good husband, a good father; of having tried to make the world a little better off rather than worse off because he has lived; of having been a doer of the word and not a hearer only still less a mere critic of the doers. Every man has it in him, unless fate is indeed hard upon him, to win out that measure of success if he will honestly try.”
– Theodore Roosevelt,
excerpt from “Address at the Prize Day Exercises at Groton School,” 1904*President Theodore Roosevelt and his four sons, the New York Tribune, May 29th, 1904 (source)
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What the Country Needs
“What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.”
– Will Rogers
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The Object of a New Year
“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterward. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
– G. K. Chesterton
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Christmas Day 2021
“Man’s maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witnesses, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.”
– Augustine of Hippo
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You Can’t Take It With You
Arrogant banker Anthony P. Kirby is a businessman on a mission. Determined to get rich and put his competitor out of business, there is just one thing standing in his way: the Sycamore family. Owners of the last property Kirby must purchase in order to make his monopoly a reality, these eccentric yet sincere everyday Americans aren’t interested in the exorbitant sums offered, content with life as it is as long as they have friends and each other. Matters aren’t helped any when the Kirby’s son, Tony, falls in love with the Sycamore’s daughter Alice who, naturally, Mrs. Kirby believes is below their class. But in the end, after a few mishaps and misunderstandings, Alice’s Grandpa Vanderhof is able to help the Kirbys realize that there are some things in life that matter more than money. The recipient of two Academy Awards, this old-fashioned comedy is sure to become a family favorite!
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Pearl Harbor Day
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Imitation
“As long as you are imitating someone else, the most that you can ever hope to be is second best.”
– Paul Harvey,
as quoted in Paul Harvey’s America (Mansfield/Holland) -
Thanksgiving Day 2021
“What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace? May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say:
‘Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity,’ etc.
‘Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good: and his mercies endure forever. Yea, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, show how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them.’
‘Let them confess before the Lord His lovingkindness and His wonderful works before the sons of men.’”
– William Bradford,
from History of Plymouth Plantation, c. 1650*The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Jennie A. Brownscombe, 1914 (source)
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Obliterating History
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
– George Orwell
