“I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.” - Abraham Lincoln, July 10, 1858 Speech at Chicago, Illinois

As this President’s Day holiday is not one of my last 100 Monday’s, I’ll share just a few thoughts, and quotes from some of the great men who have served our country in this role. I look forward to the day when women will have also served as President and I believe we benefit from having their leadership and perspectives in senior roles in government, education, and business.

The courage and integrity required to serve effectively as president, or in government in general has been an inspiration to me during my life and career. Watching our leaders face difficult choices, criticism, and crisis with courage, intelligence, humility, and wisdom has provided many great lessons for me.

As I think of my own life mission, to do what is right with love, I realize that the leaders I most admire approach their own work guided by similar values. They seek to do what is right even when it is very difficult. They have a strong ethical foundation and moral compass. While I would never compare myself to men who have faced the immense challenge of the presidency, I do admire the best of our presidents and learn from their examples.

I've enjoyed reading the biographies, speeches and letters of many of these great men. There is so much to learn from their experience, thoughts, and struggle. I particularly enjoyed John Kennedy’s “Profiles in Courage” with its examples of leaders who stood up for what was right even at great personal cost.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from a few of our greatest presidents. From my childhood heroes, Lincoln and Kennedy, to founding fathers, Washington and Jefferson. From others rated among the greatest by historians such as Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower, to two of the presidents I am most proud to have voted for, Carter and Obama. I particularly admire what many of them did to pursue equal justice for all.

“I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.” - Abraham Lincoln

"Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.” - John F. Kennedy.

“for if Men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind; reason is of no use to us—the freedom of Speech may be taken away—and, dumb & silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.” -George Washington

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.” - Thomas Jefferson

"The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom." - Theodore Roosevelt

“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

“When even one American - who has done nothing wrong - is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth - then all Americans are in peril” - Harry Truman

“Don't join the book burners. Do not think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.” - Dwight Eisenhower

“America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.” - Jimmy Carter

“We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.” - Barack Obama

© 2017 James Michael. The text of this work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0