THE TEN CANNOTS

by William John Henry Boetcker in 1916
These admonitions form a sound foundation for the governance of a people or a nation.
They are often incorrectly attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

  1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
  2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
  3. You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
  4. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
  5. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
  6. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
  7. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
  8. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
  9. You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's initiative and independence.
  10. And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

These are ten rules by which man can order and govern his own life.

  I Commandment
    Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

  II Commandment
    Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

  III Commandment
    Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

  IV Commandment
    Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in themis, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

  V Commandment
    Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

  VI Commandment
    Thou shalt not kill.

  VII Commandment
    Thou shalt not commit adultery.

  VIII Commandment
    Thou shalt not steal.

  IX Commandment
    Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

  X Commandment
    Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’ s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.