Something To Think About Archive

Thoreau said, “Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.”

Author Ayn Rand, “Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision.”

Journalist Wilma Askinas wrote: “There is no better measure of a person than what he does when he is absolutely free to choose.”

Congressman, later President, William McKinley’s tariffs of 1890 raised tariffs on imported goods to about 48%, one of the highest rates in U.S. history at the time. This made foreign goods more expensive, which was meant to protect American manufacturers but hurt consumers instead. It also hurt American farmers who relied on exporting crops, as foreign countries retaliated with their own tariffs and contributed to the Panic of 1893 by reducing international trade. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff bill in 1930, also an attempt to protect American industries, worsened the Great Depression as U.S. exports dropped by over 60% between 1929 and 1933. The real answer to American prosperity, as President Trump has also stated, is a reduction in barriers to productivity, like regulations, onerous permitting processes and fees and taxes.

Don’t insist on having your own way. Insist on finding the best way.

Thoreau claimed that “The cost of a thing is the amount of life that must exchanged for it.”

Poet Robert Frost said, “Some people have nothing to say and keep on saying it.”

Coach Vince Lombardi believed that “The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.”

Aristotle said: “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”

While some judges may have overstepped their jurisdictions in issuing injunctions against actions taken by the Trump Administration, they do not rise to the level of impeachable offenses, an action created for malfeasance, not policy disagreement. Rather than calling for impeachment of these judges, certain to have an unlikely outcome, Trump should let it play out in the appeals process as the Founding Father’s designed. As someone who himself was a victim of spurious impeachment actions, you’d think he’d be more hesitant to use that as a weapon.

“Tomorrow is a new day;” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, “you shall begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered by your old nonsense.”

“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.” Maureen Dowd

Mark Twain — ‘Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.’

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Alan K. Simpson “There is no “slippery slope” to loss of liberties, only a long staircase where each step downward must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders.”

What you expect of yourself will be closely linked to what you accomplish.

George Washington said: “It is our duty to make the best of our misfortunes.”

As New York Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell once noted: “A fellow doesn’t last long on what he has done. He’s got to keep on delivering as he goes along.”

Former GE CEO Jack Welch said: “Any time there is change, there is opportunity.”