Today is the 31st Anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation as president and we continue to feel the effects to this day.

In his farewell speech to White House staff, sweat beading on his upper lip - just like during the Kennedy debates - he had a few words of advice:

Always remember others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.

He knew what he was talking about.

Pop historians give 1968 credit as being a critical turning point in modern times - a year when we lost Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., and Vietnam raged on. But the effects of 1974, the summer of 1974, continue to be felt even stronger.

America wasn't just dealing with Watergate that year. Hundreds of thousands of American workers walked picket lines that year. Racial tension ran strong from coast to coast. Vietnam and Cambodia were still bloodbaths. The economy was battling inflation - a battle it would eventually lose when Jimmy Carter became president. The Middle East was a tinder box. And hit music included songs like "My Thang" by James Brown. Yet, the country got through it.

It's clear, though, that some folks could stand to follow Nixon's advice when it comes to hating others. But it's also worth considering something else Nixon had to say, before he climbed into the helicopter on the White House lawn and offered up his victory salute:

"...The greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes when you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes; because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain."

Tag: Nixon