Presidential Wisdom

Since today is President's Day--the federally recognized combination birthday commemoration of two of our favorite presidents of the past [George Washington (Feb. 22, 1732) and Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12, 1809)] I thought we could look at some of their words of wisdom.

George Washington Quotes

• "I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut it with my little hatchet."
• "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence—it is force."
• "I conceive that a knowledge of books is the basis on which all other knowledge rests."
• "Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience."
• "Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."
• "Doctor, I die hard, but I am not afraid to go."
• "Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth."
• "Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company."
• "I am just going. Have me decently buried and do not let my body be into a vault in less than two days after I am dead. Do you understand me? . . . 'Tis well." (Washington's last words)

Abraham Lincoln Quotes

• "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
• "God must love the common man, he made so many of them."
• "Everybody likes a compliment."
• "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
• "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."
• "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
• "Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."
• "I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me."'