From the desk of Jan Hommel, American Freedom Museum Director:

Words are very powerful. They can have a positive or negative effect on our thoughts, emotions and lives. They can build us up, give us hope, empower us to press on, or even persuade us to fight for a cause. But they can also destroy, diminish, cause despair and render us angry, hopeless and helpless. In Proverbs 18:21, King Solomon says that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”

As we can see throughout history, the right words at the right time, have encouraged and moved our nation. Our Founding Fathers, Presidents and national leaders knew how to use their pens and words to unite us and encourage us to love, support, serve and defend our country.

Let’s take a look at some powerful words and life lessons from a few of our nation’s leaders:

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”  ~ John Quincy Adams

“I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an “Honest Man.”.” ~ George Washington

“On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.” ~Thomas Jefferson

“It’s easier to do a job right, than to explain why you didn’t.” ~ Martin Van Buren

“There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power.” ~ William Henry Harrison

“You don’t know what you can miss before you try.” ~ Franklin Pierce

“Better to remain silent and to be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
~ Abraham Lincoln

“If wrinkles must be written on our brow, let them not be written on our heart. The spirit should never grow old.”  ~ James Garfield 

“Great lives never go out; they go on.” ~ Benjamin Harrison

“The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who does nothing.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

“I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty.” ~ Woodrow Wilson

“Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.” ~ Herbert Hoover

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight- it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

“It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
 ~ Harry S. Truman

“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.” ~ John F. Kennedy

“A man who has never lost himself in a cause bigger than himself has missed one of life’s mountaintop experiences. Only losing himself does he find himself.” ~ Richard M. Nixon

“The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.”
~ Ronald Reagan

“When we give what we can and give it with joy, we don’t just renew the American tradition of giving, we also renew ourselves. ~ Bill Clinton

“America is a Nation with a mission – and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace – a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman.” ~ George W. Bush

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” ~ Barack Obama

Mrs. McHugh’s 10^th and 11^th grade speech classes visited the American Freedom Museum this week to observe the impact of a good persuasive speech. They focused on the purpose of persuasion, whether in speech format, writing, or in daily conversation. After a lesson on the Cold War and the significance of the Berlin Wall, students listened to President Reagan’s speech challenging Premier Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”. They also listened to President Bush’s address to the nation after 9/11. Both times, students identified the effects of evocative and inclusive words and the impact on those being addressed in the speech.  The students left the museum with a better understanding of how the power of a well-crafted statement filled with rich imagery, has moved the people of America to accomplish great things, and also how the pen has truly been mightier than the sword!