Peter E. Greulich's Blog for Short Thoughts, Insights and Witticisms

Daniel C Roper: Old Thoughts but Forever Truths

1/19/2023

"It dawned upon me that interpretation of truth, or the righteousness of either side of a question depended upon the sources of information and an open-minded willingness to examine different views."

Daniel C. Roper's Autobiography, Fifty Years of Public Life, 1941

As applicable today in a social-media-driven world as it was in the rock-and-spear Stone Age, and all the eras in between. Daniel C. Roper was the United States Secretary of Commerce during Tom Watson's time at IBM. Fundamentally, thinking is important but also the sources of information that your thinking is founded on.

A good case for the social sciences and attaining a wide, generalized education.

Peter E. Greulich, January 19, 2023

J. C. Penney: Old Thoughts but Forever Truths

1/11/2023

First Thought

“I don't have much patience with people I hear saying that it is impossible to get good people for jobs. . . . Won't it follow naturally that if a business idea is basically sound it will draw to itself quality people, not only because of the job but because they want to be connected with a business whose underlying idea has vigor, and offers scope for individual initiative?"

Second Thought

Slide with 1925 picture of James C. Penney and his quotes.

“Our country could have been mightier than it is, had not some throughout every period of its history retarded its growth by greed, corruption in high places, petty partisanship in crucial periods, and individual selfishness. . . . Selfishness, of course, is the festering spot in every evil situation, whether world, nation, or individual.”

Third Thought

“My advice to young people today is to let no day pass without pushing personal standards a notch higher. The law of struggle is the essence of all life—animal, vegetable, and human. Our progress from birth to death is marked by struggle, and rightly so, for when we cease to struggle, dry rot takes over. . . . Young people who count not their hours but their opportunities are the ones who maintain the difficult road to success.”

Select the link below to read book reviews of J. C. Penney's "Fifty Years With the Golden Rule."

Peter E. Greulich, Author

Read Reviews of J. C. Penney's "Fifty Years With the Golden Rule."

Fosdick: Old Thoughts but Forever Truths

12/7/2022

"When the last glacier retreated northward from what is now Connecticut, it left behind as mementos of its visit, great boulders of rock which are now strewn lavishly across the state.

Picture of tree growing from a rock

"Several of them, as large as a corncrib and many tons in weight, were deposited on my farm, and for fifteen years I have watched one of them fight a losing battle with an ash tree. The tree evidently started in a seed lodged in a tiny pocket in the top of the rock.

"When I first saw it, it was a sturdy sapling that had made for itself a comfortable crevice for its roots.

"Today, its irresistible growth has torn the massive rock into fragments. This is the law of life. The future belongs not to rigid absolutes, whether they are primal rocks of unyielding social arrangements, but to the thing that can grow, whether it is a tree or a democracy."

Raymond B. Fosdick, "We Must Not Be Afraid of Change,"
The New York Times, April 3, 1949

This is the starting few paragraphs to a full article written by Raymond B. Fosdick. If you think that what we are facing today is a new threat to democracy, I would highly recommend reading it in its entirety. Change and the discussion of change is the way of a people united through democracy . . . a diversity, not so much achieved through shades of color or non-color—black and white, but . . . through thoughtful discussion.

Peter E. Greulich

Access this Article on the New York Times TimesMachine

Access This Article in the "Appendix to the Congressional Record" on Google Books.

Eisenhower: Old Thoughts but Forever Truths

12/1/2022

"We got a peace of a sort almost five years ago [post World War II]. It has been more or less with us in the guise of what we call a cold war. … 

Image of a dove in flight.

"But there is a second kind of peace, and in our aspirations, it must be to bring to all men living together the confidence that bodily harm will not be used to make them agree—that violence cannot bring about right."

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, May 1950

It would seem that this fundamental truth holds true whether it is in international relationships or within our own political system here at home. "Bodily harm" cannot be the means to make individuals agree.

To preserve the freedom of speech, we have an obligation to listen to each other.

Peter E. Greulich, December 2022

See More "Old Thoughts but Forever Truths"

Tom Watson Jr.: Old Thoughts but Forever Truths

9/10/2022

Dangers of Data Centralization Circa 1971

“Today the Internal Revenue Service has our tax returns. The Social Security Administration keeps a running record on our jobs and our families. The Veterans Administration has medical records on many of us, and the Pentagon has our records of military service.

“In this scatteration lies our protection. But put everything in one place, computerize it, and add to it without limit, and a thieving electronic blackmailer would have just one electronic safe to crack to get a victim's complete dossier—tough as that job would be.

"And a malevolent Big Brother would not even have to do that, he could sit in his office, punch a few keys, and arm himself with all he needed to know to crush any citizen who threatened his power.

“Along with the bugged olive in the Martini, the psychological test, and the spike microphone, the critics have seen ‘data surveillance’ as an ultimate destroyer of the individual American citizen's right to privacy--his right to call his soul his own.”

This was included in a statement from Robert P. Bigelow, Attorney at Law, Boston, quoting Thomas J. Watson Jr. before a U.S. Senate Congressional Hearing: "Federal Data Bank, Computers, and the Bill of Rights" on March 10, 1971

Character on Display: Old Thoughts but Forever Truths

9/5/2022

Image of Crystal Ball with

"A man's life and beliefs are written upon his hands, upon his face and form, in his words and actions . . .

. . . and even into his penmanship."

Carroll D. Murphy,
"Handling Men: The Man for the Job," 1917

For more business insights, quips and witticisms select the image above or the link below.

Business Quips and Witticism

John H. Patterson: Old Thoughts but Forever Truths

9/3/2022

"Life is like a book . . .

" . . . and the individual who spends all of their time in one place, reads only one page."

John H. Patterson
NCR Corporation President

Attribution: John R. Bangs Jr., “Human-O-Grams,” The Ithaca Journal, April 14, 1938, p. 12

Read Other "Old Thoughts but Forever Truths"

Eisenhower: Old Thoughts but Forever Truths

7/1/2022

"In our hatred of war—in our repudiation of rule by force which means enslavement—we still cannot forget those ennobling traits of human character which alone can carry men forward to victory, when war is thrust upon us. … Weakness cannot cooperate with anything.

"We have got to be strong."

Image of the front dust cover from

Select to read the book review.

Words from John Gunther's "Eisenhower: The Man and the Symbol" describing our former President.

“Eisenhower is extremely deft at handling a group, almost any kind of group. His talent for conciliation, for welding a team, is one of his salient characteristics.”
“He sees other points of view. He is commendably quick to modify his own.”
“There is nothing static or cramped about Eisenhower. His attitude is always supple and aware.”
“He is open-minded and likes to take advice.

“People in lower echelons say, ‘If we can only get this issue to Ike, it will be all right.’ ”

It is this last quote that reminds me of IBM's Open Door policy from the 20th Century. It seems that we IBMers knew that if we could just get the information to one of the Watsons ... everything would be alright. Then again, so did first-line and middle management who made it a point to seriously consider all their actions in the area of human relations.

Select the icon below to read the full book review of John Gunther's "Eisenhower: The Man and the Symbol."

Review of John Gunther's Eisenhower

Calvin Coolidge: Old Thoughts but Forever Truths

6/20/2022

"Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil; our great hope lies in developing what is good."

Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States

Picture of the 30th President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge.

Calvin Coolidge: Wiki Commons

"We do not need more national development, we need more spiritual development. We do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more law, we need more religion.

"We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen."

Calvin Coolidge

"No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave."

Calvin Coolidge

I have just finished reading Volume I of "The Forbes Scrapbook of Thoughts on the Business of Life." It is amazing how just reading a few of the thoughts of a man or woman can be enough to make me wonder why I was never taught more about great men and women of American history … or, maybe, to keep the blame where it best rests:

Why I have been negligent in my studies until I am an old man who can see the end of days ahead? Do not waste thy youth, young man or woman!

Peter E. Greulich

J. Kenfield Morley: Old Thoughts but Forever Truths

6/13/2022

Picture of rose bush and thorns.

"I can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or I can rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.

"It's how you look at it."

J. Kenfield Morley,
THINK Magazine, February 1936

This quote also shows up credited to Mr. Morley in B. C. Forbes' Scrapbook of Thoughts: Volume I from 1953. Trying to find information on Mr. Morley proved challenging. It seems that if Wikipedia doesn't know about you, you just don't exist, eh? Which means I don't exist either, right? (Thank God!)

So, I did a little digging, and this is what I found.

Who was J. Kenfield Morley? J. Kenfield Morley was a Sales Promotion Manager for the Bell & Howell Company, Chicago, Illinois. He wrote the article, "Some Things I Believe" that was printed in the February, 1937 issue of The Rotarian.

This quote was not in this article, but there are a multitude of other quotes. Here are a few that seem as relevant today, as they seemed to Mr. Morley some 85 years ago.

I believe that the facilities of modern travel have made it increasingly difficult to escape the vulgarian.

Black and white picture of J. Kenfield Morley of the Bell & Howell Company.

J. Kenfield Morley

I believe that a man can save 20 years of his life by studying the experience of others.
I believe that if a person could have half his wishes, he would treble his troubles
I believe that you may surround a skunk with plush and velvet, but he’ll always be a skunk.
I believe that the real cost of anything is the amount of work required to earn the money to purchase it.
I believe the recipe for happiness to be just enough money to pay the monthly bills you acquire, a little surplus to give you confidence, a little too much work each day, enthusiasm for your work, a substantial share of good health, a couple of real friends, and a wife and children to share life’s beauty with you.

Cheers,

- Peter E.

© 2023 Peter E. Greulich. All Rights Reserved
Information posted on this site recognizes the legal right of copyrighted material. The following material is considered in the public domain effective January 1, 2023: (1) works published in the United States prior to 1928, (2) all unpublished works created over 120 years ago, (3) works published in the United States before 1978 that have no © copyright notice, and (4) works published in the United States after 1926 but before 1964 with a proper © copyright notice that were not renewed in their 28th year. Some information is used here that does not fit this criteria. It has been minimized, and it is used in good faith and in the belief that such usage would withstand a test of fair use. This site also utilizes images from Pixabay that are "free to use under the Pixabay license" and "do not require attribution." Any concerns with the public domain, fair usage, or attribution of material utilized on this site will be removed until a discussion can resolve the matter with its permanent removal or republication. To reach this author, use the "Contact" menu item above or the "Contact Us" hyperlink provided here: [Contact Us]