Ten Cannots

This is one of those posts where I list somebody else’s wisdom because I am too lazy to write something of my own. I am running short on prepared pieces to post each week, so instead you get this:

In 2005 Jean and I visited our daughter Ann and son-in-law Scott in Killeen, Texas and ended up touring the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco. The third floor of the museum housed an exhibit sponsored by the Free Enterprise Institute that displayed the following statements titled “The Ten Cannots” and attributed them to Abraham Lincoln. I absolutely loved the 10 statements and was surprised I had not heard of them during my schooldays. They were just too good for me not to have remembered them.

When we got back to Atlanta I did a Google search and found on the Wikipedia site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._H._Boetcker
that these statements actually belong to William John Henry Boetcker (1873-1962). The brief write-up in Wikipedia is interesting and I recommend it to you.

I wish that our government would abide by these principles.
My liberal friends will disagree with some of these. (You know who you are!) (Smile)


The Ten Cannots by William John Henry Boetcker (1873-1962)

• 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.