A lesson on leadership

The U.S. celebrates Presidents’ Day on Monday. The federal holiday was originally created to recognize President George Washington, but is used now to celebrate all U.S. presidents, past and present.

For most people, it’s a three-day holiday. The holiday serves as a great chance to remember some of our bravest, courageous leaders. I couldn’t choose a few quotes, here’s a handful more.

  • “On matters of style, swim with the current; on matters of principle, stand like a rock.” ―Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809)
  • “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” —Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
  • “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” —Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909)
  • “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 (1953–1961)
  • “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.” —John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)

Happy Presidents’ Day.

Images courtesy of Pexels and Pixabay.

26 thoughts on “A lesson on leadership”

      1. Our govt has acted over the years to ensure workers have one long weekend a month. But Family Day isn’t written in stone yet: some provinces call this Heritage Day while others have the first Monday in Aug as Heritage Day.

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  4. Interesting. When I was a kid, a million years ago and living in the U.S., we had 2 holidays in Feb, Feb 12 was Lincoln’s b’day and Feb 22 was Washington’s b’day. When they were merged, I think because other important national days had been established, I assumed from afar that Presidents Day was merely the joining of the two. I didn’t realize you were now honoring ALL your presidents!?! Hmm. 😏 Happy long weekend.

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    1. What a great memory Jane. I forgot about that, I vaguely remember having off for Lincoln’s birthday on Feb 12 and then Washington’s on Feb 22. It changed in the early 70s in an attempt to better manage all of the federal holidays. As a kid, I loved having off twice in February!!!!!

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      1. My daughter’s birthday is Feb. 12 so we still consider it a holiday in our family! I remember having both of those days off too. I looked it up and it was changed to President’s Day in 1968 when Congress decided to make all national holidays on Mondays.

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  5. The Lincoln quote? “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” How is this new to me? Thank you for sharing, Brian. Such a great compilation of wisdom. 🤍

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  6. These are great quotes, Brian. I haven’t heard many of them, although I know and love Barack Obama’s quote. A three-day bank holiday is quite something. We didn’t even get that on our late Queen’s birthday. And King Charles’s coronation will only be a one-day bank holiday on the 8th of May this year. I think the US is more like Australia, where my sister lives, as they seem to have bank holidays every five minutes! Enjoy your three-day break, Brian. Hope you can do something nice during that time. I guess it’s all the more time to write.

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  8. I don’t want to come across as negative, but I haven’t had a president in some of the past years as I don’t at the moment. Biden is an international embarrassment.

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    1. We’ll have to agree to disagree here John. I’m not a big fan of Pres. Bidens, but I still think he was a better choice over Pres. Trump. I wasn’t fond of Pres. Trump’s bluster and constant lying on things that could easily be checked out, but I understand others may not have the same opinion as me. I think the great thing about the U.S. has always been that we can disagree on our politics and still sit down together cordially and actually work together on areas where we do have agreement. It’s harder to do nowadays, but I think it’s still possible. Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Sadly, I haven’t worked for a company that honors President’s Day in more than 35 years. Nor do I see much coverage in the news about it. I understand there’s a limit to the number of holidays a company can honor, but I wish we’d hear a little bit more about our leaders and a little less about blowout sales this weekend.

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