Category: Our Favorite Quotes

Paul Harvey wrote this in 1964.  Prophetic.

If I were the prince of darkness, I would want to engulf the whole world in darkness.

I’d have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree — thee.

So, I would set about however necessary to take over the United States.

I’d subvert the churches first, and I would begin with a campaign of whispers.

With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.”

To the young, I would whisper that the Bible is a myth. I would convince the children that man created God instead of the other way around. I’d confide that what’s bad is good and what’s good is square.

And the old, I would teach to pray after me, “Our Father, which are in Washington …”

Then, I’d get organized, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting.

I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the devil, I’d soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves and nations at war with themselves until each, in its turn, was consumed.

And with promises of higher ratings, I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellect but neglect to discipline emotions. I’d tell teachers to let those students run wild. And before you knew it, you’d have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

With a decade, I’d have prisons overflowing and judges promoting pornography. Soon, I would evict God from the courthouse and the schoolhouse and them from the houses of Congress.

In his own churches, I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I’d lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls and church money.

If I were the devil, I’d take from those who have and give to those who wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.

What’ll you bet I couldn’t get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich?

I’d convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun and that what you see on television is the way to be.

And thus, I could undress you in public and lure you into bed with diseases for which there are no cures.

In other words, if I were the devil, I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing.

 

 

“Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” ― Anonymous Greek Proverb

This quote was shared with me recently (love it) and the following story of a great man who inspired an American president, Secretary of State, and one of America’s greatest generals and I’ll bet you don’t know his name. This great man was a U.S. Army general who retired in the early 1930’s. He was the mentor to President and 5-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower, Secretary of State and 5-star general George C. Marshall, and General George Patton.  All three credited him with their success and being the person who guided their careers.  General John “Blackjack” Pershing, on whose staff this man served, said of him, “I could lose any man in the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) except you”. High praise.

Eisenhower served as this man’s Aide-de-Camp in the Panama Canal Zone in the 1920s for two years. Eisenhower called the next two years under this man his most profound period of military education. Eisenhower recalled in his memoirs that his mentor started him on an intense military history reading program. He readd Carl von Clausewitz’s On War repeatedly and worked to expand Eisenhower’s intellectual horizons by introducing him to the works of Plato, Tacitus, Nietzsche, and and even Shakespeare, particularly Shakespeare’s’ play, Henry the 5th.

Eisenhower adopted his mentor’s three important war-fighting lessons:

1. Never fight unless you have to

2. Never fight alone

3. Never fight for long

Every Army officers career depended on completing the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Eisenhower was blackballed because of a controversial article he wrote on the future of mechanized infantry. Eisenhower was Infantry and each branch was allocated only a certain number of slots every year, and the competition was intense. His mentor realized that it would be crime if Eisenhower wasn’t allowed to  go so he contacted an old West Point classmate, Major General Robert C. Davis, who  was now the adjutant general of the U.S. Army. Davis was responsible for, among other things, all personnel management actions, and so Conner had Davis arrange Eisenhower’s transfer to the Adjutant General’s Corps. Davis then gave Eisenhower one of the corps’ two Leavenworth slots.  Eisenhower went on to graduate first in his class. After Eisenhower’s graduation,his mentor and Davis transferred him back to the infantry and his meteoric career took off.

He advised Patton to go into the then infant U.S. Army tank corps. He also quietly advised Eisenhower and Marshall how to handle the volatile Patton throughout the war.

Marshall served with his mentor in WW1 on Pershing’s staff and often cited him in his memoirs for many of the same lesson’s that Eisenhower mentions. He worked behind the scenes to ensure Marshall was in the right jobs at the right time. Marshall even sent him the plans for the invasion of Europe while his mentor was retired asking for his advice and consent.

The mentor for these three men was Major General Fox Conner U.S. Army (retired). A name you probably never heard or read about, but whose mentoring ability and vision probably had as much to do with the Allied victory in WW2 as any other person. Be the Fox Conner for people around you and acknowledge you own Fox Conners when you achieve success.

Apparently December is the month for loved one’s birthdays for the authors of this blog. Today is my Dad’s birthday. He has always been the template for the man I wanted to be – strong, responsible, determined, honest, and dependable. If my Dad said he was going to do something – he did it. I can remember so many moments from my childhood where my Dad provided me and my brother a text book example of how to be a man. He met people with a smile a firm handshake and always looked them in the eyes. He was a man’s man as they say. Whenever I watch John Wayne movies, I think of him.

My Dad was blue collar and proud of the hard work he did, day-in and day-out. He literally worked sun up to sun down with little complaint. When he did something, he always did his best. He instilled that lesson in both of his sons. I remember one particular incident where he had asked me to sweep out the garage. I was a typical teenager and did a very poor job of it and then went to watch TV.  My Dad called me back to the garage where he proceeded to show me what a good job looked like, then he tossed all the dirt and leaves he had just swept back into the garage and stood there while I did the job the right way – to his standard. He made it clear there were no excuses to doing any job poorly. Which reminds me of my favorite quote – which I might have shared, but will share again because it reminds me of him.

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

That is my Dad. Happy birthday to a fantastic Dad and my role model.

 

Reading the news these days is just depressing. It seems that everyone is finding a reason to be mad about something.  I understand part of that is the need for the media to generate emotions and in turn generate interest in their stories, which in turn generate ad revenue.  I get it.  I don’t like it, but I get it. I saw an interview this morning on MSNBC where the reporter was asking a lady in Florida (in response to Gen Kelly’s press interview on how fallen soldiers are handled after death) “why is America so divided?”  The lady answered the same way I would have – because of the press. It seems no matter what side of an issue you fall – you are the worst villain since Hitler and Stalin rolled into one to somebody.

Why?

The people I talk to at work everyday, from diverse backgrounds and cultures, do not have a problem being civil to each other and to me. We may disagree with one another on some issues but we realize we are all in this together. It’s only when you introduce a catalyst – and a negative one at that – do we see respect and common sense go out the window. That catalyst is the media, conservative and liberal. There is no such thing anymore as journalistic integrity. Not that I see or read.

What to do?

Stop letting talking heads with an agenda steal your happiness. The world’s not as bad as they make it out. Hitler and Stalin are dead – and except for that madman in North Korea who executes people with anti-aircraft artillery – I don’t see their kind on the horizon. This is a great time to be alive. Act like it. Say hi to people on the street. Smile more. Love more. Hate less. Be happy. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”  I reckon’ that’s true.