WIST

Yet the Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.

Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
Speech, U. of Kansas, Lawrence (18 Mar 1968)

To trust altogether in the justice of our cause, without our own utmost exertions, would be tempting Providence.

President George Washington (1732-1799) US President, military leader
Letter to Jonathan Trumbull (7 Aug 1776)

Th’ only way t’ entertain some folks is t’ listen t’ em.

Kin Hubbard (1868-1930) American caricaturist and humorist [Frank McKinney Hubbard]
Abe Martin: Hoss Sense and Nonsense (1926)

To govern is not to write resolutions and distribute directives, to govern is to control the implementation of the directives.

Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Soviet political leader
(Attributed)
Quoted in Neil McInes, The Communist Parties of Western Europe, ch. 3 (1975)

With aching hands and bleeding feet
We dig and heap, lay stone on stone;
We bear the burden and the heat
Of the long day and wish’t were done.
Not till the hours of light return
All we have built do we discern.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
“Morality,” ll. 7-12 (1852)

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