He proved that lightning was made up of electricity. He designed the medical device called a urinary catheter, to save his brother. He invented the Franklin Stove and the lightning rod. He got tired of changing his glasses, so he invented the first bifocal lenses. He designed the odometer to figure out how far his carriage had traveled. He loved music and invented the Armonica. And on and on. He was the first great American scientist and inventor. (And you can add to that diplomat, statesman, and Founding Father.)
Category Archives: Americans
I haven’t been to the bookstore to pick up new quote book yet. As I told you yesterday, the quote books I have did not have any quotes about Good Friday. Only one had some quotes about Easter, and those quotes are from people you won’t quickly recognize.
But here are a few more of the Easter quotes:
“The story of Easter is the story of God’s wonderful window of divine surprise.” –Carl Knudsen
“The great day does not merely arrive like a date on the calendar; it explodes!”
It used to anyway. I read in a paper this morning that less than half of those who proclaim to be Christian, in their survey, knew or believed that Easter recognizes the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Less than half! And this used to be a Christian nation.
I’ve got to get some new quote books! I looked in six of my favorite quote books to find something said about “Good Friday.” There was nothing in any of them. How does that happen? Well, I guess they’re not really religious quote books, but still . . .
I did find some quotes about Easter—but only in one of those books. It did have several quotes, but none from anyone you would have heard about.
Since it is Easter weekend, and I am the author of “The Illegal Trial of Christ”, I thought I’d better include a few quotes about Easter at least. So here are a few (but you’ll have to look in your Encyclopedia to find out anything about the famous person being quoted!
Many years ago our former President, Calvin Coolidge, said this: “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common that unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and dedication alone are all powerful.”
In addition, I believe that persistence must be accompanied by distress or discomfort of some sort. If one has experienced setbacks or trials, when you combine those tribulations with persistence then you get success. You overcome. You truly learn something about your own character.
Polo Grounds during World Series Game, 1913 from the Bain Collection by David Shapinsky from Washington, D.C.
Growing up I was a fan of Ted Williams. He was quite a batter. When he was approaching 40 years of age he began closing out his career with the Boston Red Sox. At that time he was suffering a pinched nerve in his neck.
“The thing was so bad that I could hardly turn my neck to look at the pitcher,” he reported. That year he batted under .300 for the first time in his career. In 1959 he batted just .254, his lowest batting average, but he was still making $125,000.00. Well, that was a lot in 1959.
Benjamin Franklin was one of the most successful diplomats in our nations early history. He was so good at making friends, and helping them to agree on lending money to the colonies that we won the Revolutionary War.
He made few speeches at the Constitutional Convention, but those he did make led to the approval of the final document. He learned to make friends even out of those who would want to argue.
He once put it this way: “The way to convince another is to state your case moderately and accurately. Then scratch your head, or shake it a little and say that is the way it seems to you, but of course you may be mistaken about it. This causes your listener to receive what you have to say, and as like as not turn about and try to convince you of it since you are in doubt. But if you go at him in a tone of positiveness and arrogance, you only make an opponent of him.”
I received a letter a few days ago asking me some questions about my book “The Illegal Trial of Christ.” I politely responded and answered the questions asked of me.
Then today I received a phone call from this same person, with a couple of more questions. We had a nice chat and it was apparent that this person had done a great deal of reading and research about the death of Christ and what led up to it.
This man said he was a neurologist and he is writing his own book about the medical reasons of Christ’s death. Basically the premise of his book is that Christ actually died from a loss of blood. The crown of thorns was really the cause of loss of more blood that had previously been attributed to it. That he was in reality the sacrificial lamb, and it was the time of year for that major sacrifice. He fulfilled his purpose in coming to Earth.
Most people who have a little interest in American history have read Benjamin Franklin’s words which seemed to bring about a final consensus and agreement on the basics of our Constitution. I believe I have even repeated them here on this blog at some time or another. (If you can’t remember them or want to have them again go to the book “FoundingFathers–Uncommon Heroes”. What Ben said is there on page 33. If you don’t have the book yet, for heaven sakes, get it right now. Click here.)
There is something I just can’t understand—at all! Yesterday in my blog I gave some little bit of background about our U.S. Constitution. I mentioned that our Constitution has been amended only 17 times since the original Bill of Rights was adopted. Seventeen times since December 15, 1791. That’s more than 225 years.
But two of those amendments came in 1913. What happened in 1913 that allowed those two amendments to be approved? Woodrow Wilson was president and started the “progressive” movement. Which shortly died out for a while, but it’s back now—with a vengeance. Just look, we have our first openly socialist candidate.
There has been much talk in the recent political arena about protecting the Constitution. There hasn’t been much talk about the Constitution itself and what it says or means. I sometimes wonder how much politicians, Senators, Representatives, Judges and even citizens really know about the Constitution. But it does make for a good sound bite.
When I think about the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1987, I am amazed that it even got ratified. There was much debate and disagreement. The room at Independence Hall was locked and the windows closed so the people wouldn’t see the contention in the debates. (Think of the televised debates today!)