First of two parts
We are moving forward toward the 2020 election of the president of the United States. Many voters are calling this election one of the most important elections in our history. How will historians judge the choices we as voters make? Will our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren have better lives than we are living in today? There are many issues we as voters must consider. Let’s pray that we think not only of today, but the future of our loved ones.
Elizabeth Lombardo, Ph.D. Psychology Today thought it would be inspirational to gain wisdom from each of our 45 presidents. She writes:
“In all fairness, I could not spontaneously name all the presidents in order. So, not only was this an exercise in finding motivating quotes from our country’s leaders, but a good lesson in history.
“Each citation can provide you with insight and encouragement, regardless of what is going on in your life. They are not specific to the time in history when these men were in office, but are rather timeless wisdom.
George Washington: “Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad company.”
John Adams: “To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.”
Thomas Jefferson: “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”
James Madison: “The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.”
James Monroe: “It is by a thorough knowledge of the whole subject that [people] are enabled to judge correctly of the past and to give a proper direction to the future.”
John Quincy Adams: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”
Andrew Jackson: “Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.”
Martin Van Buren: “It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn’t.”
William Henry Harrison: “Times change, and we change with them.”
John Tyler: “I can never consent to being dictated to.”
James K. Polk: “The gratitude … should be commensurate with the boundless blessings which we enjoy.”
Zachary Taylor: “I have always done my duty. I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me.”
Millard Fillmore: “An honorable defeat is better than a dishonorable victory.”
Franklin Pierce: “While men inhabiting different parts of this vast continent cannot be expected to hold the same opinions, they can unite in a common objective and sustain common principles.”
James Buchanan: “The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.”
Abraham Lincoln: “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”
Andrew Johnson: “If you always support the correct principles then you will never get the wrong results!”
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant: “In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack, wins.”
Rutherford B. Hayes: “Every expert was once a beginner.”
James A. Garfield: “Right reason is stronger than force.”
Chester A. Arthur: “Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let everyone know that you have a reserve in yourself; that you have more power than you are now using. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it.”
Grover Cleveland: “It is better to be defeated standing for a high principle than to run by committing subterfuge.”