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Speak softly and carry a big stick

A proverb quoted by Theodore Roosevelt as a brief statement of his approach to foreign policy. (See big stick diplomacy

“Speak softly and carry a big stick” he said, and they did.

But some carried a bigger stick than others and when they saw that others had a bigger stick than they, they too sought to carry an even bigger stick. And so the whole world plunged itself into the arms race, and today, this is the reason why there are enough nuclear weapons in the world to blow it up many many times over, all because someone had the seemingly smart idea of “carrying a big stick.”

And so I say, speak softly by all means, for this is a good thing, but don’t carry any stick at all, for this is a bad thing.

© Written by Dominic John Gill September 6, 2006 www.poetry.net.au  dominicj7@poetry.net.au