Who said make no small plans

On his blog, Mysterious Chicago Tours, Selzer describes his search for contemporaneous reporting of a speech Burnham gave to city planners in London. Much of the speech was reproduced in the article, including the essential line, exactly as generations of Chicagoans have known it. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.

Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. So congrats, Mr. Chicago suffers plenty of problems that demand more than incremental solutions. We push for answers on those every day. I have to admit, the quote really inspired me, so much so that I eventually memorized it. I went on to discover that Burnham was renowned for many famous structures in Chicago and elsewhere, like the instantly recognizable triangular Flatiron Building in Manhattan.

Was I aiming high in hope and work for the glory of my Creator? What if I — if we as the Church — took this verse at face value and lived every day as though we absolutely believed it? Let my watchword be only Your Word, and my only beacon the beauty of Christ. As Mr. I agree with Mr. Burnham; many people set their sights too low. They make little — instead of big — plans. I think people do this because of a lack of self confidence. Self confidence is another key to success that I discuss in Straight Talk.

Facing your fears and acting is one way to become self confident. Making big plans and setting big goals is one way of facing your fears and acting. The same kind of thinking holds for individuals. Sing it while you are alive. You can do this if you are willing to dare greatly by setting high goals. We need systems of passes around the congested districts.

We need still more and mainly to diminish the number of people and vehicles using given areas. Here Burnham described this scheme in detail, and advocateda plan to build more tunnels for transportation, so that transport would not disturb the surface of the street.

Can it be doubted that the city of the future will operate its cental street system, possibly all its streets, in this manner? Other things being equal, a person accustomed to living in nature has a distinct advantage all his life over the purely townbred man. Allure your city denizen to sylvan nature, for it is there he finds the balm his spirt needs.

Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Podcast: Play in new window Download. Thank you for this excellent research and your zeal with which it was pursued. May God bless you as you keep up this great work Adam! Proud I have a Chicago heritage in my family.

Your persistence is commendable and the result is laudatory. Go forth with renewed conviction that unbridled curiosity is rewarded in this life.