"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." (Prov. 16:18)

While campaigning for the presidency in August 1928, Herbert Hoover said, "We are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The poorhouse is vanishing from among us. We have not yet reached the goal, but we shall soon be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation." Americans found Hoover's words highly gratifying, and he was elected by a landslide. Less than a year later, however, the stock market crashed, beginning the Great Depression.