Chel Owens

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.

–Reverend William H. J. Boetcker, “The Ten Cannots”

14 thoughts on “”

  1. So, Chelsea, this would be the same William H J Boetcker who used to organise boycotts of employers who wanted to pay their employees a fair day’s pay? In the modern world, I prefer his other famous quote “A man is judged by the company he keeps, and a company is judged by the men it keeps, and the people of Democratic nations are judged by the type and caliber of officers they elect.” 😉

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    1. Sheesh; I don’t know. I mostly try to track down the original source of quotes and his name came up. 🙂

      I think someone tied the quote to Churchill or someone, originally.

      I just like the sentiment that we can’t throw money at a problem to solve it.

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      1. It was Lincoln that it was wrongly attributed to and Reagan used it as well. Totally agree about throwing money at a problem and expecting miracles. I’d quote H L Mencken on that, as I used to, until I saw some of his other quotes that I didn’t agree with, so now I’ve decided to only quote myself. 🙂

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  2. If one were to limit their sources of inspirational quotes to those speakers found irreproachable over the course of their entire life time- the world would instantly become bereft of inspiration. And you can quote me on that…..

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