Words of wisdom

Posted by on Nov 04 2008 in Journal

Found this, called "The Ten Cannots" the other day:

* You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
* You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
* You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
* You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
* You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
* You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
* You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
* You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
* You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
* And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

--William J. H. Boetcker, 1916 (often attributed to Lincoln)

4 comments

Comment from: RMC1

Oh, you find such good stuff! Maybe I’ll use it for awhile as an email signature. Thanks.

Comment from: Ken

Sound like lessons derived from _Atlas Shrugged_ by Ayn Rand, which I’ve read recently. But perhaps her philosophy derived from someone else.

Comment from: karen

It’s all such common sense stuff, that I’m sure many have expressed similar ideas over the years.

Comment from: Jack Moeller

Hello Karen,
I agree completely with “The Ten Cannots".

I have been enjoying reading through your blog for some time now so I thought I would tell you about a homesteading, emergency preparedness, and survival forum that I am a member of, www.PreparedSociety.com.

It has a ton of great information on simple and frugal living, green living, financial insight, gardening, livestock, food storage, natural health and medicine, and much more!

I’m sure the members of the forum would love to hear from you! It’s free and easy to sign up.

Hope to see you there!

Jack
www.PreparedSociety.com