Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. – Calvin Coolidge
Coolidge is the intellectual patron of Ricochet. Statements like this are one reason why.
“Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they do their job. Then they must find this speck lost somewhere on the sea. When the find it they have to land on its pitching deck. Where do we get such men?” — RAdm. George Tarrant in The Bridges at Toko Ri, James Michener
The Bridge at Toko Ri was a novella Michener wrote in 1953. at the end of the Korean War. Set during that war, one of its themes was the question of whether the generation that became adults after World War II had the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the challenges of those times. Some felt that this new generation lacked the courage, the endurance, and the determination of the men who had fought World War II. They were weak and would fail, those people thought.
“Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today?” – Thomas Sowell
We sure have. After all, San Fran Nan didn’t do anything wrong by violating California’s COVID lockdown rules. She was set up. That excuses everything. Meanwhile, I am supposed to feel guilty about black slavery that ended decades before my grandparents arrived in the United States from Greece.
And he would know. This is from a letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal on July 21, 2020:
I spent half of my life in the ex-USSR, as a researcher at the Academy of Sciences. I lived through the Great Terror, and my experience allows me to see the inevitable consequences of today’s onslaught on the institutions of the American Republic: its irreparable destruction.
Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys. – Fyodor Dostoevsky People tend to focus on their few problems, while ignoring their many blessings. I know I am guilty of doing this. Read More View Post
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“I know there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that.” – Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer spoke these words ironically, as a joke. Yet it has become a progressive mantra in the last few years. Some businesses post signs saying words to the effect that they love everyone – haters stay out. Progressives post signs on their lawns proclaiming “Love Trumps Hate,” while hating Trump and anyone who does not actively hate Trump. They claim saying “all lives matter” is racist, without attempting to explain logically how that can be true. They say “love is the answer” while slamming the door in the face of anyone who might point out that is not necessarily always true.
“Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions – and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large.” – Thomas Sowell
As a nod towards Dr. Bastiat (@drbastiat) and his post “A Brief Excursion into Hero Worship,” I thought it fitting to provide some Sowell food with today’s quote of the day. Rummaging through my collection of unused Thomas Sowell quotes, I decided this one best fits the events of 2020, since so many are driven by the government’s pursuit of benefits at whatever cost, however large.
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.” – Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
I have two questions for everyone who is sure that Donald Trump will lose this November:
“Over half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn, May, 1983
I cannot help thinking that this is also the lesson to be learned both from COVID-19 and the riots that have visited American cities.
“You can have peace or you can have freedom. You cannot get both at once.” – Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein made this comment during his speech at the 1976 MidAmeriCon World Science Fiction Convention, where he was guest of honor (skip to 7:40 to avoid a dull introduction). Heinlein was a cold warrior; he was a warrior, period. He understood freedom was not free, and the tree of liberty had to be renewed with the blood of patriots and tyrants. During his life, he saw the US struggle against four tyrannies: Imperial Germany, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and the Soviet Union. He died before the ultimate victory against the Soviet Union, but he understood the only way to overcome tyranny was to fight it.
“Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem—vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always are in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” – John Proctor […]
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“With a law such as this, enforced only against the poor or honest man and violated with impunity by every rich scoundrel and every corrupt politician , the machine did indeed seem to have its yoke on the neck of the people.” — Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt made this statement during a speech while he was president of New York City’s police commission during the 1890s. He was speaking about a law forbidding the sale of alcoholic drinks on Sundays. Prior to his tenure, it had been largely ignored. But it was ignored at a price. Saloon keepers and bar owners paid off local officials. Not just with money, but with political support. The only time the law was enforced was against political opponents of those in office or those too honest to pay bribes.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” – Voltaire
This has never been more true than this summer. We are forced to pretend COVID is deadly, that all lives do not matter, that those that founded this country – a country based on principles of equality and liberty – are scum, but that dictators and mass murderers like Mao, Lenin, and Castro are saints.
“In America the young are always ready to give those who are older the full benefits of their inexperience.” — Oscar Wilde
Are we ever seeing examples of this over the last few weeks. In Seattle, the young (and privileged) set up an autonomous zone that immediately devolves from their intended socialist paradise to something out of Lord of the Flies. They tear down statues of Grand and abolitionist Union leaders because of slavery or something. They threaten to topple a statue of Lincoln – paid for and erected by former slaves because white racism, or something. They demand everyone think just like they do because truth, or something.
“Son, there are times a man has to do things he doesn’t like to, in order to protect his family.” – Ralph Moody
Tomorrow is Fathers’ Day. Fathers are pretty well despised in today’s popular culture. Probably for the reason given in this quote. A father does things he does not like to do to protect his family.
MY four years were drawing to a close. They had been years of patient endurance and hard and persistent work, interspersed with bright oases of happiness and gladness and joy, as well as weary barren wastes of loneliness, isolation, unhappiness, and melancholy. I believe I have discharged—I know I have tried to do so—every duty faithfully and conscientiously. It had been a sort of bittersweet experience, this experimental life of mine at West Point. It was almost over, and whatever of pure sweetness, whatever of happiness, or whatever reward fortune had in store for me, was soon to become known.—Henry Ossian Flipper, the Colored Cadet at West Point
Henry Ossian Flipper was the first black man to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He did so on this date in 1877. He had been born a slave twenty-one years before that. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Buffalo Soldiers. While he had troubles and faced prejudice, he went on to a long professional career in various capacities with governments and as an engineer. He was also an author, writing his first book the year after graduation while at Fort Sill.
“Freedom of speech and thought matters, especially when it is speech and thought with which we disagree. The moment the majority decides to destroy people for engaging in thought it dislikes, thought crime becomes a reality.” – Ben Shapiro
Are we there yet? Has thought crime become a reality? It seems that way. Our freedoms are now under siege as they never have been before. An NFL quarterback is made to apologize for issuing a patriotic thought. A distinguished legal scholar at a New York University is fighting to keep his job because he expresses doubts about the BLM movement. And people everywhere are made to deny what they are seeing before their eyes — that they are witnessing rioting and looting, not peaceful protests.
“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” – George S. Patton
