Motivational quotes from the Founders for a better new year

The Founding Fathers are a font of wisdom. Since a new year is upon us, when we resolve to turn over a new leaf, I thought it might be good to list some of their advice on various subjects.

ECONOMIC ADVICE
Don’t spend more than you make is wise advice, no matter what century we live in. Jefferson said: “Never spend your money before you have earned it.”

With economic advice, it is always wise to try and live within our means. Another area of advice is to help us to live within our seams.

HEALTH-RELATED ADVICE
Ben Franklin might not have lived up to all the great advice he dished out. But he sure has some timeless sayings on curbing one’s appetite.

Consider these gems Franklin wrote:

“A fat kitchen, a lean Will.”
“Eat to live, and not live to eat.”
“Many dishes many diseases, Many medicines few cures.”
“To lengthen thy Life, lessen thy Meals.”

Thomas Jefferson wrote this on the subject of exercise: “Exercise and application produce order in our affairs, health of body, cheerfulness of mind, and these make us precious to our friends.”

FAMILY-ORIENTED GOALS
George Washington reminded us to marry well: “I have always considered marriage as the most interesting event of one’s life, the foundation of happiness or misery.”

Perhaps one of the keys to that piece of advice comes, again, from Ben Franklin, who declared: “Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.”

The late Charlie Kirk would tell young people today to get married and to have lots of kids. In 1791, Jefferson penned a letter to his son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph: “I congratulate you sincerely, my dear Sir, on the birth of the little daughter. ‘Happy the man, in the scripture phrase, who hath his quiver full of them.'”

GOALS FOR RIGHTEOUS LIVING
Our second president, John Adams, wrote: “The happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue.”

Watch out for bad character. The bad can bring the good down. George Washington was heavily influenced by a book of 119 proverbs. He meditated on these and studied them so well that today they are often called “George Washington’s Maxims” or “The Rules of Civility.” Here’s what one of them said about carefully choosing who you associate with – for the sake of good character: “56th – Associate yourself with Men of good Quality if you Esteem your own Reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad Company.”

ON WALKING WITH GOD
Spiritual growth is an important goal in general, as a New Years’ Resolution or lifetime goal.

Reading the Bible is a key to walking with God. John Quincy Adams (JQA), our sixth president, once wrote a letter to his son in September 1811. As to reading the Scriptures, he said: “I have myself, for many years, made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year. … My custom is to read four to five chapters every morning immediately after rising from my bed. It employs about an hour of my time.”

ON DOING WHAT IS RIGHT. PERIOD.
One of my all-time favorite quotes about life also comes from John Quincy Adams: “Duty is ours. Results are God’s.” It’s better to fail doing the right thing than to succeed doing that which is wrong.

JQA worked so hard to fight against slavery. Christian educator Travis Witt, a guest in my series of films on America’s Christian roots, made the following remarks about JQA and his tireless fight against our nation’s original (but not unique) sin.

Said Witt, “John Quincy Adams … is the only president to ever go from president to Congress. Everybody used Congress as a stepping stone to the president, he stepped back. What was his reason? He wanted to make sure that slavery ended, and he’s the one that the word ‘gag order’ has been used for. So, he was constantly talking about ending slavery, and at one point in time, in between 1831 and 1847, when he died, he used these words, ‘Duty is ours, results are God’s.’ Well, in 1846, a freshman legislator came in from Illinois, and they became friends. His name is Abraham Lincoln.”

By the time JQA died, slavery was still around. But he plugged away, working to end it. What a wonderful legacy.

I pray that we’ll all have a healthy and productive new year, and grow closer to the Lord. As Founding Father John Jay, our first chief justice of the Supreme Court, said in his Last Will and Testament: “Unto Him who is the Author and Giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His merciful and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by his beloved Son.”

Happy New Year.