“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin (1759)
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First Principles: They That Can Give Up Essential Liberty To Purchase A Little Temporary Safety, Deserve Neither Liberty Nor Safety
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Benjamin Franklin, Deserve, Essential, First Principles, Give Up, Liberty, Purchase, Safety, Temporary, They
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Thought For the Day: As Knowledge Spreads, Wealth Spreads. To Diffuse Knowledge Is to Diffuse Wealth
“General education is the best preventive of the evils now most dreaded. In the civilized countries of the world, the question is how to distribute most generally and equally the property of the world. As a rule where education is most general the distribution of property is most general…. As knowledge spreads, wealth spreads. To diffuse knowledge is to diffuse wealth. To give all an equal chance to acquire knowledge is the best and surest way to give all an equal chance to acquire property.” – Rutherford B. Hayes
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Tagged Acquire, Civilized Countries, Distribute, Dread, Education, Evils, General Education, Knowledge, Preventative, Property, Rule, Rutherford B. Hayes, Surest Way, Thought For the Day, Wealth, World
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Inconvenience Into Resemblance
Inconvenience Into Resemblance
by Michael Doyle
Casting aside the inconvenience
Looking instead for the resemblance
Is he your bother or a brother?
What happened to loving one another?
Red letter moments meant to teach us
Each word said in try to reach us
Passages that speak to heartaches
Meant to encourage not dwell on mistakes
It is not the healthy but the sick
That need the embrace of grace quick
Heading as we are toward so much wrong
God's loving arms are where we belong
Sobering as it is to be in reflection
God teaches life needs holy direction
Though each of us trends toward our pursuits
Of things that hurt and do not contribute
In the seasons of our missing of things
We fail to see what goodness brings
Jesus's faith was only in the factual
Which was to believe in us and our potential
Leaning in toward our spiritual perfection
Under the healing hand of His gentle correction
The things of purity true in their resemblance
Point out that to God, each of us is of importance
What God has done for those like me
He surely will do for the likes of thee
Stepping into all of our messy spaces
His love is given within His sacred embraces
(c) October 3, 2021 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Believe, Belong, Bother, Brother, Done, Dwell, Embrace, Embraces, Encourage, Factual, Faith, Gentle Correction, God, God's Loving Arms, Goodness, Grace, Healing Hand, Healthy, Heartaches, His Love, Hurt, Importance, Incovenience, Jesus, Leaning In, Loving One Another, Me, Messy Spaces, Missing, Mistakes, Passages, Poetry and Poems, Potential, Purity, Pursuit, Reach, Red Letter, Reflection, Resemblance, Sacred, Seasons, Sick, Sobering, Speak, Spiritual Perfection, Stepping Into, Teach, Teaches, Thee, Toward, True, Wrong
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Thought For the Day: Precision of Communication Is Important, More Important Than Ever, In our Era of Hair-Trigger Balances
“Precision of communication is important, more important than ever, in our era of hair-trigger balances, when a false, or misunderstood, word may create as much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act.” – James Thurber
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Balance, Communication, Create, Disaster, False, Hair-Trigger, Important, James Thurber, Misunderstood, Precision, Thought For the Day, Thoughtless Act, Word
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First Principles: Democracy Will Soon Degenerate Into An Anarchy, Such An Anarchy That Every Man Will Do What is Right In His Own Own Eyes
“[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man’s life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few.” – John Adams, An Essay on Man’s Lust for Power, 1763
Our Founders established a republic not a democracy because they believed democracy would bring our nation to ruin.
Posted in First Principles
Tagged An Essay on Man's Lust For Power, Anarchy, Beauty, Capricious Will, Cruelty, Degenerate, Democracy, Every Man, First Principles, Intellectual Abilities, John Adams, Liberty, Life, Moral Virtues, One, Own Eyes, Powers, Property, Reputation, Science, Secure, Very Few, Wanton Pleasures, Wealth, Wit
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First Principles: The Battle, Sir, Is Not the Strong Alone; It Is To the Vigilant, the Active, the Brave
“The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.” – Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Convention, 1775
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Active, Alone, Battle, Brave, First Principles, Patrick Henry, Strong, Vigilant, Virginia Convention
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Thought For the Day: As For Me and My Household, We Will Serve the Lord
“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”– Joshua 24:15
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Tagged Amorites, Choose, Forefathers, Gods, Joshua 24:15, Land, Me, River, Serve, The Lord, Thought For the Day, Undesirable, We
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Magical Realism
Magical Realism
by Michael Doyle
Art and thought are products
Of their own serial moments
Pop culture and serious art
Are both expressions of the heart
Tugged down into the complex maze
Of primeval struggles
Between those who naval gaze
And those who merely bungle
Magical realism shines its conceit
As the story engine churns seduction
Allowing representation not deceit
While conspiracy theorists reveal deduction
Wiping out the narrative of our ongoing show
That is the universe of accepted mystery
All these parts of the pain that seems to flow
While the rest is simply discarded history
Deep in the landscape of malls and cookie cutters
Where broken geographies beg for their fill-in
The ships of capital have all lost their rudders
The abstract need for more begins again and again
Feeling half at home in the multi-ethnicity
Abstracted in the concrete paths almost spiritual
While lingered on romantic aspirations of modernity
Our lives are half-shaped, yet, quietly habitual
Housewives pass time in electric salon conversation
While the genius of their ethics have gone flaky
You'll have to pardon my lack of fascination
For a fantasy of life that leads to its own devastation
(c) October 1, 2021 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Abstract, Accepted Mystery, Art and Thought, Aspirations, At Home, Bungle, Conceit, Concrete Paths, Conspiracy Theorists, Deceit, Deduction, Devastation, Discarded History, Electric Salon, Ethics, Fantasy of Life, Fascination, Flaky, Flow, Geography, Habitual, Half Shaped, Heart, Housewives, Lack, Landscape, Lives, Magical Realism, Maze, Modernity, Narrative, Naval Gaze, Pain, Poetry and Poems, Pop Culture, Primeval, Products, Representation, Romantic, Seduction, Serial Moments, Serious Art, Ships, Show, Spiritual, Story Engine, Tugged Down, Universe
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On the Futility of Revenge
On the Futility of Revenge
by Michael Doyle
Life it seems
Beyond its dreams
Is a transitory question
Best approached with hesitation
Careful of curtains hung
Equally as so with songs unsung
About the wrongs we wish to avenge
For such things bring their own revenge
Often these cut both ways
Bringing darkness to light of days
Often despite the points scored
Petty acts do not bring honor restored
Dueling has its dangers
For friends who've become strangers
The wrong intended for some poison all
Each feeling their backs against the wall
All good intents for life
Are lost when peace loses to strife
Would it have not been better to move on
Before all the good in life is gone
(c) October 1, 2021 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Avenge, Backs, Curtains, Danger, Darkness, Days, Dreams, Duel, Friends, Futility, Gone, Good Intent, Hesitation, Honor, Life, Light, Lost, Move On, Petty Acts, Poetry and Poems, Points Scored, Poison, Restore, Revenge, Songs, Stranger, Transitory Question, Wall, Wrong, Wrongs
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Thought For the Day: Of All Tyrannies, A Tyranny Sincerely Exercised For the Good of Its Victims May Be the Most Oppressive
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” – C. S. Lewis
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged C.S. Lewis, Exercise, Good, Moral Busybodies, Omnipotent, Oppressive, Robber Barons, Sincere, Thought For the Day, Tyranny, Victims
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