REASON TO BELIEVE

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REASON TO BELIEVE

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In Reason to Believe, Bruce Springsteen sings, “At the end of every hard-earned day / people find some reason to believe.” What’s your reason to believe?

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When deciding how to answer my REASON TO BELIEVE, I decided to allow myself to take a different turn.

Too often in our world, our beliefs are values that seem to drive wedges between people groups.

A man’s core values, his (her) manifest destiny, should be a uniting element in today’s world.

Many times, that is not so.

Therefore, being the history aficionado  that I love to be, I delved into each of our president’s lives to capture a statement of belief that I feel would allow the world to once again try to see way is best in each of us… instead of concentrating on only what makes us different.

I have not included our last two presidents… Just the mere mention of their names seems to instill anger and hatred in local populous.

I only wanted thoughtful, sometimes witty, statements that would cause reflection.

I hope that I have achieved that goal.

• It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.  George Washington
• Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order. John Adams
• 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. Thomas Jefferson
• If men were angels, no government would be necessary.   James Madison
• A little flattery will support a man through great fatigue. James Monroe
• If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.  John Quincy Adams
• 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.  Andrew Jackson
• The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.  Martin Van Buren
• There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power.  William Henry Harrison
• Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality.  John Tyler
• The passion for office among members of Congress is very great, if not absolutely disreputable, and greatly embarrasses the operations of the Government. They create offices by their own votes and then seek to fill them themselves.  James K. Polk
• It would be judicious to act with magnanimity towards a prostrate foe.  Zachary Taylor
• It is not strange… to mistake change for progress.  Millard Fillmore
• Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion. Franklin Pierce
• I like the noise of democracy.  James Buchanan
• In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln
• If the rabble were lopped off at one end and the aristocrats at the other, all would be well with the country.  Andrew Johnson
• Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions. Ulysses S. Grant
• One of the tests of the civilization of people is the treatment of its criminals.  Rutherford B. Hayes
• A brave man is a man who dares to look the Devil in the face and tell him he is a Devil.  James A. Garfield
• Men may die, but the fabrics of free institutions remains unshaken. Chester A. Arthur
• Though the people support the government, the government should not support the people. Grover Cleveland
• We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.  Benjamin Harrison
• The free man cannot be long an ignorant man.  William McKinley
• If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.  Theodore Roosevelt
• The world is not going to be saved by legislation. William Howard Taft
• If you want to make enemies, try to change something.  Woodrow Wilson
• America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.  Warren G. Harding
• Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.  Calvin Coolidge
• Children are our most valuable natural resource.  Herbert Hoover
• Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.  Franklin D. Roosevelt
• A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.  Harry S Truman
• A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.   Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.   John F. Kennedy
• Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.  Lyndon B. Johnson
• Defeat doesn’t finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he’s defeated. He’s finished when he quits.  Richard M. Nixon
• When a man is asked to make a speech, the first thing he has to decide is what to say. Gerald R. Ford
• We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.  Jimmy Carter
• We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions. Ronald Reagan
• We are not the sum of our possessions.  George H. W. Bush
• Character is a journey, not a destination.   William J. Clinton

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Written for The Daily Post. January 18, 2016. Reason to Believe