A Bit of Wisdom from Adam Smith

A Bit of Wisdom from Adam Smith

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Henry David Thoreau

A Bit of Wisdom from Henry David Thoreau

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Frank Lloyd Wright

A Bit of Wisdom from Frank Lloyd Wright

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.” […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Norman Vincent Peale

A Bit of Wisdom from Norman Vincent Peale

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Mark Twain

A Bit of Wisdom from Mark Twain

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Harry S. Truman

A Bit of Wisdom from Harry S. Truman

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Niccolò Machiavelli

A Bit of Wisdom from Niccolò Machiavelli

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Ulysses S. Grant

A Bit of Wisdom from Ulysses S. Grant

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from John James Audubon

A Bit of Wisdom from John James Audubon

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from J. P. Morgan

A Bit of Wisdom from J. P. Morgan

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Corrie ten Boom

A Bit of Wisdom from Corrie ten Boom

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Thomas Jefferson

A Bit of Wisdom from Thomas Jefferson

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Henry Clay

A Bit of Wisdom from Henry Clay

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Christ on Good Friday

A Bit of Wisdom from Christ on Good Friday

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Booker T. Washington

A Bit of Wisdom from Booker T. Washington

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 […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Vincent van Gogh on his Birthday

A Bit of Wisdom from Vincent van Gogh on his Birthday

Auvers-sur-Oise, France…Vincent van Gogh 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890 “It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.” “The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Sam Walton

A Bit of Wisdom from Sam Walton

Bentonville, AR…Samuel Moore Walton (March 29, 1918 – April 5, 1992) The father of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart was a different and many would say better company with him at the helm. “If you love your work, you’ll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Robert Frost

A Bit of Wisdom from Robert Frost

Bennington, VT…Poet Robert Lee Frost March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963. “Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.” “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Fanny J. Crosby

A Bit of Wisdom from Fanny J. Crosby

Bridgeport, CT…Fanny J. Crosby, March 24, 1820 – February 12, 1915. Was the blind “Queen of Gospel Song Writers” who wrote over 8,000 hymns & gospel songs. “God will answer you prayers better than you think. Of course, one will not always get exactly what he has asked for….We all have sorrows and disappointments, but […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Wyatt Earp

A Bit of Wisdom from Wyatt Earp

Los Angeles, CA…Wyatt Earp March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929. American lawman and gambler in the American West, including Dodge City, Deadwood, Tombstone & Alaska. “Fast is fine, but accuracy is final. You must learn to be slow in a hurry.” “Are you going to do something or just stand there and bleed?” “The […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Saint Patrick

A Bit of Wisdom from Saint Patrick

County Down, Northern Ireland…Saint Patrick 386 – March 17th, 461. The Patron Saint of Ireland “I plainly told them, ‘Be ye sincerely converted, and with your whole heart, to the Lord our God, for nothing is impossible to Him, that He may today send you food on your road, even until you are satisfied, because […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Andrew Jackson

A Bit of Wisdom from Andrew Jackson

Nashville, TN…Andrew Jackson, March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845 General & Seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837. “The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer… form the great body of the people of the United States, they are the bone and sinew of the country men who love liberty […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Lawrence Welk

A Bit of Wisdom from Lawrence Welk

Santa Monica, CA…Lawrence Welk, March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992. American bandleader, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982. He was the Champagne Music King. “Freedom is without a doubt the greatest blessing we have in America so let us protect it and defend it with all our hearts and all […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Luther Burbank

A Bit of Wisdom from Luther Burbank

Santa Rosa, CA…Luther Burbank March 7, 1849 – April 11, 1926 The botanist, horticulturist and pioneer in agricultural science developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career. “It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean. For those who do not […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Alexander Graham Bell

A Bit of Wisdom from Alexander Graham Bell

Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia…Alexander Graham Bell March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922. He gave us the telephone and much more. “In this experiment, made on the 9th of October, 1876, actual conversation, backwards and forwards, upon the same line, and by the same instruments reciprocally used, was successfully carried on for the first time […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Dr. Seuss

A Bit of Wisdom from Dr. Seuss

La Jolla, CA…Theodor Seuss Geisel March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991. A Bit of wisdom from Dr. Seuss today on the legendary children’s author and cartoonist’s birthday. “How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Ben Franklin

A Bit of Wisdom from Ben Franklin

Philadelphia, PA…A Bit of Wisdom for today from my favorite founding father. Considered the first American by many. He also through his writings and Poor Richard’s Almanac created the uniquely American identity. “The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.” “Without freedom of […]

A Bit of Wisdom from Enzo Ferrari

A Bit of Wisdom from Enzo Ferrari

Maranello, Italy…Enzo Ferrari, 20 February 1898 – 14 August 1988. Italian racing driver and entrepreneur, founder Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team & Ferrari automobile marque. “I have yet to meet anyone quite so stubborn as myself and animated by this overpowering passion that leaves me no time for thought or anything else. I […]

A Bit of Wisdom from George Washington

A Bit of Wisdom from George Washington

George Washington February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799. The first president of the United States and founding father of our country. “It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.” “Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and […]