Something To Think About Archive

We should be able to think for ourselves as well as we can think for others.

Columnist Sydney J. Harris said that “It’s a toss-up as to which are finally the exasperating – the dull people who never talk, or the bright people who never listen.”

California’s budget woes continue despite Gavin Newsome’s claims to the contrary. The Legislative Analyst’s Office now projects the shortfall at $73 billion twice that of the Governor’s estimate. And with the top 1%, or at least those that are left, paying 50% of the state’s income tax, future revenues to cover the shortfall are looking doubtful. Given his thinly disguised presidential aspirations it looks like he’ll fit right in with deficit happy Washington.

Author Louis E. Boone advised us to “(not) fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.”

As the debate over funding goes on, the war in Ukraine looks eerily like the 1930’s when Hitler annexed Austria under the guise of political unification, much like Vladimir Putin is doing with Ukraine has he tries to fulfill his announced reunification of his concept of Russia. Like Hitler, who went on to invade Czechoslovakia and Poland not to mention France, Putin started with the Crimean Peninsula and then moved on to Ukraine. What’s next if he is not stopped here and now?

Motivational author Stephen Covey believed that “Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people.”

Scientist Booker T. Washington said: “Character is power.”

Mae West claimed that “You’re never too old to become younger.”

The first Prime Minister of India, Nehru, could have been talking about our times when he noted that “On the whole, I think we shall survive. The outlook is as bad as it has ever been, but thinking people realize that – and therein lies the hope of its getting better.”

Writer Washington Irving believed that “Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.”

Argentina’s new president represents big change for that beleaguered country. He recently spoke at the notably liberal World Economic Conference in Davos claiming that “far from being the cause of our problems, free-trade capitalism as an economic system is the only instrument we have to end hunger, poverty and extreme poverty across our planet.”

According to actress Ethel Barrymore, “The best time to make friends is before you need them.”

Soldier-Statesman Colin Powell claimed that “There are no secret to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure.”

It’s been noted that: “Success is not always final. If you build a better mousetrap, nature will breed a smarter mouse.”

John Steinbeck wrote: “A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have only the hard, clean question: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well or ill?”

Cookie entrepreneur Debi Fields once noted that “You do not have to be superhuman to do what you believe in.”

The corruption at the United Nations has finally gone beyond the pale. For years, known bad actors have chaired the Human Rights Commission, including the current chair the Iranian Ambassador. But now we discover that hidden below the headquarters of the United Nations’ aid agency for Palestinians in Gaza City is a Hamas complex with rows of computer servers that Israel says served as an important communications center and intelligence hub for the Islamist militant group and appears to have run on electricity drawn from the U.N.’s power supply. Perhaps it’s finally time for the U.S. to leave the U.N. a failed organization and require them to move their headquarters to some other nation willing to put up with their duplicity.

Businessman and Presidential advisor Bernard Baruch cautioned us to “Vote for the man who promises the least.”

According to Eleanor Roosevelt: “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

Entertainer Marie Osmond says that “If you’re going to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now.”