“You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.” – Anonymous

From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst

23 February

"This is the day the Lord has made; let us exult and rejoice in it,” says the Bible - not yesterday, not tomorrow, not some pretend day. Surely, we’re meant to grab on with both hands, and GO, right?

“Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.” – Coco Chanel

From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst

22 February

Success is always a journey; failure is always acquiescence to some fixation.

“Never, never, never give up.” – Winston Churchill

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

February 23

In the six months following the start of the spring campaign of 1864, a titanic struggle ensued between Ulysses S. Grant commanding the Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee commanding the Army of Northern Virginia. During that time Grant suffered over 50,000 casualties – more than the size of Lee’s entire army. Such astronomical casualty figures virtually guaranteed that Lincoln would pay the ultimate price during that presidential election year. On August 23, 1864 Lincoln wrote the following: 'This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the president-elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards.'

'I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure — which is: Try to please everybody.'

- Herbert Bayard Swope

“Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” – Samuel Johnson

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

February 22

‘At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step across the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.'

- Abraham Lincoln

'Every man who can be a first-rate something has no right to be a fifth-rate something, for a fifth-rate something is no better than a first-rate nothing.'

- Josiah Holland

“Because you were neither hot nor cold I have vomited you forth from my mouth.” – The Bible

From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst

21 February

If you end up not getting what you once said you wanted, it is either because you didn't really want it, and/or you tried to bargain over the price. The rule is this: the definitive always win; the tentative always lose. Oh, and one other thing: nobody can break that rule.

“Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.” – John Dewey

From “Lincoln 365,” by Arnold Kunst

February 21

'As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.'

- Abraham Lincoln

'If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.'

- Henry David Thoreau