Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1605 |
| AUTHOR: | Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) |
| QUOTATION: | Upon the standard to which the wise and honest will now repair it is written: “You have lived the easy way; henceforth, you will live the hard way…. You came into a great heritage made by the insight and the sweat and the blood of inspired and devoted and courageous men; thoughtlessly and in utmost self-indulgence you have all but squandered this inheritance. Now only by the heroic virtues which made this inheritance can you restore it again…. You took the good things for granted. Now you must earn them again…. For every right that you cherish, you have a duty which you must fulfill. For every hope that you entertain, you have a task that you must perform. For every good that you wish to preserve, you will have to sacrifice your comfort and your ease. There is nothing for nothing any longer.” |
| ATTRIBUTION: | President Jimmy Carter quoted from the latter part of this passage, with slight variations, in his State of the Union address to Congress, January 23, 1980.—Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1980–81, book 1, p. 200. |
| SUBJECTS: | Responsibility |