The Ten Cannots
Written by Paul Zannucci on 8:31 AM
I received an email this morning containing “The Ten Cannots” and thought that would make for a nice first post. Of course, the email attributed the sayings to Abraham Lincoln, when actually it was a conservative Presbyterian minister, William J. H. Boetcker, who published them in 1916. While they are not the words of Lincoln, the list was read by Ronald Reagan at the 1992 Republican Convention. That’s good enough for me.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.
Seems like a nice way to start a blog entitled “Conservative Principles”.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.
Seems like a nice way to start a blog entitled “Conservative Principles”.
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1 comments: Responses to “ The Ten Cannots ”
By All For . . . on September 6, 2008 at 12:53 AM
Reagan! Deregulation! Except when my tax dollars go to Wall Street bailouts. Then, we're all in it together.
Socialism works in this case, right? Those share holders, where else can they turn? And guess who paid for that Texas Ranger baseball stadium? Hmmm, guess it was all that hard work and . . . oh, the tax payers paid for it.
Community Organizing? Ha! Losers! We all know what that code meant, just like the "Welfare Queen" - we all knew what that really meant, too . . .
Jesus said, "Help the least among us,". Conservatism is Darwinism. Just have the guts to say you just don't care.