Hershey, PA…Milton S. Hershey September 13, 1857 – October 13, 1945. American chocolatier, businessman, and philanthropist. I didn’t follow the policies of those already in the business. If I had, I would never have made a go of it. Instead, I started out with the determination to make a better nickel chocolate bar than any […]
Hoosick Falls, NY…Anna Mary Robertson Moses, September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961 or Grandma Moses, an iconic American folk artist who didn’t start her painting career until she was 78. “A strange thing is memory, and hope; one looks backward, and the other forward; one is of today, the other of tomorrow. Memory is […]
Frankfurt, Germany….Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832 “This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.” “There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.” […]
Philadelphia, PA…Poor Richard’s Almanack was published by Benjamin Franklin, under the pen name of “Poor Richard” or “Richard Saunders”. Annual versions were published from 1733 to 1758 & outsold everything but the bible. For two generations before the Revolutionary war he helped create our unique heritage and identity. In this crazy time where the news […]
Kansas City, MO…Harry S. Truman May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972. Our 33rd President. “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all […]
Los Angeles, CA…A Bit of Wisdom from Cecil B. DeMille. “Man has made 32 million laws since the Commandments were handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai… but he has never improved on God’s law.” “The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it […]
Jerusalem, Israel…There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
Dublin, Ireland…George Bernard Shaw 26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950. “I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.” “I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig […]
Hyannis Port, MA…Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy July 22, 1890 – January 22, 1995 “Sometimes I wonder if there is something about my family which invites violence. ‘Is it envy,’ you ask? I don’t know… I’ve had so much, a son as president, two as senators, a son-in-law who’s an ambassador… perhaps God doesn’t permit that […]
Philadelphia, PA…Poor Richard’s Almanack was published by Benjamin Franklin, under the pen name of “Poor Richard” or “Richard Saunders”. Annual versions were published from 1733 to 1758 & outsold everything but the bible. For two generations before the Revolutionary war he helped create our unique heritage and identity. In this crazy time where the news […]
Philadelphia, PA…Poor Richard’s Almanack was published by Benjamin Franklin, under the pen name of “Poor Richard” or “Richard Saunders”. Franklin began publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack on December 19, 1732. Annual versions were published from 1733 to 1758 & outsold everything but the bible. For two generations before the Revolutionary war he helped create our unique […]
Southampton, Hampshire, England…Isaac Watts 17 July 1674 – 25 November 1748 “Do not hover always on the surface of things, nor take up suddenly with mere appearances; but penetrate into the depth of matters, as far as your time and circumstances allow, especially in those things which relate to your profession.” “‘Tis the voice of […]
New York, NY…Nikola Tesla 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943 “I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success . . . Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, […]
West Point, VI…Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller June 26, 1898 – October 11, 1971. “I’ve always believed that no officer’s life, regardless of rank, is of such great value to his country that he should seek safety in the rear…officers should be forward with their men at the point of impact.” “All right, they’re on our […]
Arnold, CA…We originally posted this for Father’s Day in 2006. My father would turn 106 this year if he were here today. This poem was my father’s favorite. This one is dedicated to my Father…Jay S. Hamilton. Dad was born in November 22, 1916 and died in May 1, 1991 of a Glioblastoma brain tumor. […]
Edinburgh, Scotland…Adam Smith 16 June, 1723 – 17 July 1790. Author of Wealth of Nations and father of modern economics. “Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by […]
Concord, MA…Henry David Thoreau. July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862. As summer gets up to full swing. We thought a bit of Thoreau might be in order as many of us head into the woods for a visit this summer. “However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it […]
Phoenix, AZ…Frank Lloyd Wright, June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959 “God is the great mysterious motivator of what we call nature, and it has often been said by philosophers, that nature is the will of God. And I prefer to say that nature is the only body of God that we shall ever see.” […]
New York, NY…Norman Vincent Peale May 31, 1898 – December 24, 1993 “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture… Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.” “We’ve all heard that […]
Hannibal, Missouri…Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain), November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910. Writer of The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County that put Calaveras County & also Mark Twain on the map. “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove […]
Kansas City, MO…Harry S. Truman May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972. Our 33rd President. “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all […]
Florence, Italy…Niccolò Machiavelli 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527 Author of The Prince. This widely read treatise on power offers an amoral look at power. Advice hopefully not always followed but recognised nonetheless. “It is much safer to be feared than loved because …love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to […]
Wilton, NY…Ulysses S. Grant April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885 Civil War General & 18th President. “The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of […]
New York, NY…John James Audubon April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851 Author, Naturalist, and Ornithologist. “All trembling, I reached the Falls of Niagara, and oh, what a scene! My blood shudders still, although I am not a coward, at the grandeur of the Creator’s power; and I gazed motionless on this new display of […]
Hartford, CT…John Pierpont Morgan Sr. April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913 The father of modern finance & banking. His firm helped provide the capital as the US Economy became the largest in the world. His power was such at its zenith that he and a group of bankers actually saved the US monetary system […]
Haarlem, Netherlands…Cornelia Arnolda Johanna “Corrie” ten Boom 15 April 1892 – 15 April 1983. Holocaust Survivor & helped many Jews escape the Nazis. “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.” “Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too […]
Washington, DC…Thomas Jefferson April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826 a Founding Father & third President of the United States “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but […]
Henry Clay Sr. April 12, 1777 – June 29, 1852. American Secretary of State, Senator & Congressman “The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.” “Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in […]
Jerusalem, Israel…A Bit of Wisdom from Christ on Good Friday. The Head of Christ painting by Warner Sallman, 1941 “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the […]
Tuskegee, AL…Booker T. Washington April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915. A Bit of Wisdom from Booker T. Washington on his Birthday. “Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote […]
