NationStates Jolt Archive

Who originally said these quotes?

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

" The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatable things, called by the same name---liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatable names---liberty and tyranny. The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty... Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails to-day among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. Hence we behold the processes by which thousands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage, hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed by others as the destruction of all liberty. Recently, as it seems, the people... ...have been doing something to define liberty; and thanks to them that, in what they have done, the wolf's dictionary, has been repudiated."

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

This starts out like a pro-capitalist statement, though ignorant of how socialism really works. Then it turns into something remarkably anarchistic.

I'd say Lincoln.

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"Beside him is a beautiful androgyne called SWITCH, aiming a large gun at Neo."--Script of The Matrix (I love The Matrix, but that is still funny.)
Free your mind! (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/berkman/comanarchism/whatis_toc.html)
I like big butts!
http://img63.photobucket.com/albums/v193/eddy_the_great/steatopygia.jpg

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

This starts out like a pro-capitalist statement, though ignorant of how socialism really works. Then it turns into something remarkably anarchistic.low taxes, pro capitalism, small government presence... yeah, definition of ideal republicanism :P

Lincoln, because it is not the obvious possibility.

Lincoln, because it is not the obvious possibility.it isn't?

Well, the first one Regan used in a speech and incorrectly attributed it to Lincoln. The statement itself, however, is attributed to the Rev. William J.H. Boetcker a lecturer in the US around the turn of the century. The statement neither shares the tenor of Lincoln's other writings nor is there any evidence showing that he said it.

Definitely Reagan, bless him.

Well, the first one Regan used in a speech and incorrectly attributed it to Lincoln. The statement itself, however, is attributed to the Rev. William J.H. Boetcker a lecturer in the US around the turn of the century. The statement neither shares the tenor of Lincoln's other writings nor is there any evidence showing that he said it.I'll make note of that when announcing the correct answer :) Thanks!

--double post--

How I wish we could have such wisdom from our leaders today. He was pro-business but anti-big business, so I agree with Letila, a lot of Lincoln's thought touched the edges of anarchism. Just looking through a few more of the Lincoln quotes below its clear that the GOP is no longer "the party of Lincoln".


Some more with an anarchist bent:

You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.

I am glad to know that there is a system of labor where the laborer can strike if he wants to! I would like to God that such a system prevailed all over the world.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.


Some thoughts relevant to our current “war”:

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

Important principles may and must be inflexible.

Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read.


On business:

Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar. (How things have changed in the GOP…)

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. (Replace slavery with “reasonable levels of poverty”, “healthy levels of unemployment”, or “acceptable levels of deaths due to pollution”)

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.

It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

It is the eternal struggle between these two principles - right and wrong. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time and will ever continue to struggle. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it."


Other:

The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have? Four, calling a tail a leg don’t make it a leg.

Politicians are a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest men.

Well, the first one Regan used in a speech and incorrectly attributed it to Lincoln. The statement itself, however, is attributed to the Rev. William J.H. Boetcker a lecturer in the US around the turn of the century. The statement neither shares the tenor of Lincoln's other writings nor is there any evidence showing that he said it.No need to single Reagan out as one of the many who wrongly attributed it to Lincoln. Apparently back in 1942 some group published a pamplet titled "Lincoln on Limitations", and it included a list of 10 Boetcker quotes which people have every since attributed to Lincoln. One can see why people might have been confused.