I heard this on Dave Ramsey’s show yesterday and really loved it. It applies to so many situations, not just the current economic situation. This quote is often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln, but it was really written by this minister.
“William J. H. Boetcker, a Presbyterian clergyman who published a 1916 pamphlet (pamphlets were hip in the ’10s) called The Ten Cannots.
You cannot bring about prosperity discouraging thrift.You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative.
You cannot really help men by having the government tax them to do for them what they can and should do for themselves.”
Thank you to this blog for giving me the accurate citation and text!
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The title of your blog reminds me of a short article me and my fellow students were asked to read and debate during our induction week as we began our training as Community Education Workers at Moray House Institute of Education at the University of Edinburgh. The gist of the article was that power is like a set of scales, and the poor and disenfranchised could only become empowered by removing some of the power from those at the ‘top’ of society. It was the first time I’d considered the world like that and whilst I’m not sure the power equation is ever that simple it’s really thought-provoking to consider in political terms how the ’strong’ got to be strong and why the ‘weak’ are weak. Good quote Marla, and since I never did learn convincingly how we sort out the power imbalances in our world, if you figure it out let me know! (I’ve been a comm. ed. worker for a long time now and still haven’t really got that sorted, which seems pretty rubbish since it was the very first thing we looked at on the course…)
Loving your blog – you’ve been reading some interesting books it seems! Your Scottish small group would enjoy sitting round a table with you to discuss them…ah well, we can dream.
Those are beautiful sayings!