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FOREWORD
FOREWORD
This revised and greatly enlarged edition of "Pushing to the Front" is the outgrowth of an almost world-wide demand for an extension of the idea which made the original small volume such an ambition-arousing, energizing, inspiring force. It is doubtful whether any other book, outside of the Bible, has been the turning-point in more lives. It has sent thousands of youths, with renewed determination, back to school or college, back to all sorts of vocations which they had abandoned in moments of d
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CHAPTER I THE MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITY
CHAPTER I THE MAN AND THE OPPORTUNITY
No man is born into this world whose work is not born with him.—LOWELL. Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.—GARFIELD. Vigilance in watching opportunity; tact and daring in seizing upon opportunity; force and persistence in crowding opportunity to its utmost of possible achievement—these are the martial virtues which must command success.—AUSTIN PHELPS. "I will find a way or make one." There never was a day that did not bring its own opportunity for doing good that ne
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CHAPTER II WANTED—A MAN
CHAPTER II WANTED—A MAN
"Wanted; men: Not systems fit and wise, Not faiths with rigid eyes, Not wealth in mountain piles, Not power with gracious smiles, Not even the potent pen; Wanted; men." All the world cries, Where is the man who will save us? We want a man! Don't look so far for this man. You have him at hand. This man,—it is you, it is I, it is each one of us!… How to constitute one's self a man? Nothing harder, if one knows not how to will it; nothing easier, if one wills it.—ALEXANDRE DUMAS. Diogenes sought wi
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CHAPTER III BOYS WITH NO CHANCE
CHAPTER III BOYS WITH NO CHANCE
In the blackest soils grow the fairest flowers, and the loftiest and strongest trees spring heavenward among the rocks.—J. G. HOLLAND. Poverty is very terrible, and sometimes kills the very soul within us, but it is the north wind that lashes men into Vikings; it is the soft, luscious south wind which lulls them to lotus dreams.—OUIDA. Poverty is the sixth sense.—GERMAN PROVERB. It is not every calamity that is a curse, and early adversity is often a blessing. Surmounted difficulties not only te
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CHAPTER IV THE COUNTRY BOY
CHAPTER IV THE COUNTRY BOY
The Napoleonic wars so drained the flower of French manhood that even to-day the physical stature of the average Frenchman is nearly half an inch below what it was at the beginning of Napoleon's reign. The country in America to-day is constantly paying a similar tribute to the city in the sacrifice of its best blood, its best brain, the finest physical and mental fiber in the world. This great stream of superb country manhood, which is ever flowing cityward, is rapidly deteriorated by the soften
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House in which Abraham Lincoln was born
House in which Abraham Lincoln was born
What was there in that rude frontier forest, where this poor boy scarcely ever saw any one who knew anything of books, to rouse his ambition and to stimulate him to self-education? Whence came that yearning to know the history of men and women who had made a nation; to know the history of his country? Whence came that passion to devour the dry statutes of Indiana, as a young girl would devour a love story? Whence came that all-absorbing ambition to be somebody in the world; to serve his country
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CHAPTER V OPPORTUNITIES WHERE YOU ARE
CHAPTER V OPPORTUNITIES WHERE YOU ARE
To each man's life there comes a time supreme; One day, one night, one morning, or one noon, One freighted hour, one moment opportune, One rift through which sublime fulfillments gleam, One space when fate goes tiding with the stream, One Once, in balance 'twixt Too Late, Too Soon, And ready for the passing instant's boon To tip in favor the uncertain beam. Ah, happy he who, knowing how to wait, Knows also how to watch and work and stand On Life's broad deck alert, and at the prow To seize the p
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CHAPTER VI POSSIBILITIES IN SPARE MOMENTS
CHAPTER VI POSSIBILITIES IN SPARE MOMENTS
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.—FRANKLIN. Eternity itself cannot restore the loss struck from the minute.—ANCIENT POET. Periunt et imputantur ,—the hours perish and are laid to our charge.—INSCRIPTION ON A DIAL AT OXFORD. I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.—SHAKESPEARE. Believe me when I tell you that thrift of time will repay you in after life with a usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams, and that waste of it will make you
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CHAPTER VII HOW POOR BOYS AND GIRLS GO TO COLLEGE
CHAPTER VII HOW POOR BOYS AND GIRLS GO TO COLLEGE
"Can I afford to go to college?" asks many an American youth who has hardly a dollar to his name and who knows that a college course means years of sacrifice and struggle. It seems a great hardship, indeed, for a young man with an ambition to do something in the world to be compelled to pay his own way through school and college by hard work. But history shows us that the men who have led in the van of human progress have been, as a rule, self-educated, self-made. The average boy of to-day who w
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CHAPTER VIII YOUR OPPORTUNITY CONFRONTS YOU—WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH IT?
CHAPTER VIII YOUR OPPORTUNITY CONFRONTS YOU—WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH IT?
Never before was the opportunity of the educated man so great as to-day. Never before was there such a demand for the trained man, the man who can do a thing superbly well . At the door of every vocation is a sign out, "Wanted—a man." No matter how many millions are out of employment, the whole world is hunting for a man who can do things; a trained thinker who can do whatever he undertakes a little better than it has ever before been done. Everywhere it is the educated, the trained man, the man
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CHAPTER IX ROUND BOYS IN SQUARE HOLES
CHAPTER IX ROUND BOYS IN SQUARE HOLES
The high prize of life, the crowning fortune of a man, is to be born with a bias to some pursuit, which finds him in employment and happiness.—EMERSON. There is hardly a poet, artist, philosopher, or man of science mentioned in the history of the human intellect, whose genius was not opposed by parents, guardians, or teachers. In these cases Nature seems to have triumphed by direct interposition; to have insisted on her darlings having their rights, and encouraged disobedience, secrecy, falsehoo
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Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
We must not jump to the conclusion that because a man has not succeeded in what he has really tried to do with all his might, he cannot succeed at anything. Look at a fish floundering on the sand as though he would tear himself to pieces. But look again: a huge wave breaks higher up the beach and covers the unfortunate creature. The moment his fins feel the water, he is himself again, and darts like a flash through the waves. His fins mean something now, while before they beat the air and earth
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CHAPTER X WHAT CAREER?
CHAPTER X WHAT CAREER?
Brutes find out where their talents lie; A bear will not attempt to fly, A foundered horse will oft debate Before he tries a five-barred gate. A dog by instinct turns aside Who sees the ditch too deep and wide. But man we find the only creature Who, led by folly, combats nature; Who, when she loudly cries—Forbear! With obstinacy fixes there; And where his genius least inclines, Absurdly bends his whole designs. SWIFT. The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him in
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CHAPTER XI CHOOSING A VOCATION
CHAPTER XI CHOOSING A VOCATION
Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed; be anything else, and you will be ten thousand times worse than nothing.—SYDNEY SMITH. "Many a man pays for his success with a slice of his constitution." No man struggles perpetually and victoriously against his own character; and one of the first principles of success in life is so to regulate our career as rather to turn our physical constitution and natural inclinations to good account than to endeavor to counteract the one or oppose the
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William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
All occupations that enervate, paralyze, or destroy body or soul should be avoided. Our manufacturing interests too often give little thought to the employed; the article to be made is generally the only object considered. They do not care if a man spends the whole of his life upon the head of a pin, or in making a screw in a watch factory. They take no notice of the occupations that ruin, or the phosphorus, the dust, the arsenic that destroys the health, that shortens the lives of many workers;
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CHAPTER XII CONCENTRATED ENERGY
CHAPTER XII CONCENTRATED ENERGY
This one thing I do.—ST. PAUL. The one prudence in life is concentration; the one evil is dissipation; and it makes no difference whether our dissipations are coarse or fine.… Everything is good which takes away one plaything and delusion more, and sends us home to add one stroke of faithful work.—EMERSON. The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one, May hope to achieve it before life be done; But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes, Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows,
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CHAPTER XIII THE TRIUMPHS OF ENTHUSIASM.
CHAPTER XIII THE TRIUMPHS OF ENTHUSIASM.
The labor we delight in physics pain.—SHAKESPEARE. The only conclusive evidence of a man's sincerity is that he gives himself for a principle. Words, money, all things else are comparatively easy to give away; but when a man makes a gift of his daily life and practise, it is plain that the truth, whatever it may be, has taken possession of him.—LOWELL. Let us beware of losing our enthusiasm. Let us ever glory in something, and strive to retain our admiration for all that would ennoble, and our i
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CHAPTER XIV. "ON TIME," OR THE TRIUMPH OF PROMPTNESS
CHAPTER XIV. "ON TIME," OR THE TRIUMPH OF PROMPTNESS
"On the great clock of time there is but one word—NOW." Note the sublime precision that leads the earth over a circuit of five hundred millions of miles back to the solstice at the appointed moment without the loss of one second,—no, not the millionth part of a second,—for ages and ages of which it traveled that imperiled road.—EDWARD EVERETT. "Who cannot but see oftentimes how strange the threads of our destiny run? Oft it is only for a moment the favorable instant is presented. We miss it, and
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CHAPTER XV WHAT A GOOD APPEARANCE WILL DO
CHAPTER XV WHAT A GOOD APPEARANCE WILL DO
Let thy attire be comely but not costly.—LIVY. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed in fancy; rich not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man. SHAKESPEARE. I hold that gentleman to be the best dressed whose dress no one observes.—ANTHONY TROLLOPE. As a general thing an individual who is neat in his person is neat in his morals.—H. W. SHAW. There are two chief factors in good appearance; cleanliness of body and comeliness of attire. Usually these go together, neatness of
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John Wanamaker
John Wanamaker
Most large business houses make it a rule not to employ anyone who looks seedy, or slovenly, or who does not make a good appearance when he applies for a position. The man who hires all the salespeople for one of the largest retail stores in Chicago says: "While the routine of application is in every case strictly adhered to, the fact remains that the most important element in an applicant's chance for a trial is his personality." It does not matter how much merit or ability an applicant for a p
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CHAPTER XVI PERSONALITY AS A SUCCESS ASSET
CHAPTER XVI PERSONALITY AS A SUCCESS ASSET
There is something about one's personality which eludes the photographer, which the painter can not reproduce, which the sculptor can not chisel. This subtle something which every one feels, but which no one can describe, which no biographer ever put down in a book, has a great deal to do with one's success in life. It is this indescribable quality, which some persons have in a remarkable degree, which sets an audience wild at the mention of the name of a Blaine or a Lincoln,—which makes people
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CHAPTER XVII IF YOU CAN TALK WELL
CHAPTER XVII IF YOU CAN TALK WELL
When Charles W. Eliot was president of Harvard, he said, "I recognize but one mental acquisition as an essential part of the education of a lady or gentleman, namely, an accurate and refined use of the mother-tongue." Sir Walter Scott defined "a good conversationalist" as "one who has ideas, who reads, thinks, listens, and who has therefore something to say." There is no other one thing which enables us to make so good an impression, especially upon those who do not know us thoroughly, as the ab
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CHAPTER XVIII A FORTUNE IN GOOD MANNERS
CHAPTER XVIII A FORTUNE IN GOOD MANNERS
Give a boy address and accomplishments, and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes wherever he goes; he has not the trouble of earning or owning them; they solicit him to enter and possess.—EMERSON. With hat in hand, one gets on in the world.—GERMAN PROVERB. What thou wilt, Thou must rather enforce it with thy smile, Than hew to it with thy sword. SHAKESPEARE. Politeness has been compared to an air cushion, which, although there is apparently nothing in it, eases our jolts wonderfully.
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Jane Addams
Jane Addams
A fine illustration of the business value of good manners is found in the Bon Marché, an enormous establishment in Paris where thousands of clerks are employed, and where almost everything is kept for sale. The two distinguishing characteristics of the house are one low price to all, and extreme courtesy. Mere politeness is not enough; the employees must try in every possible way to please and to make customers feel at home. Something more must be done than is done in other stores, so that every
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CHAPTER XIX SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND TIMIDITY FOES TO SUCCESS
CHAPTER XIX SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND TIMIDITY FOES TO SUCCESS
Timid, shy people are morbidly self-conscious; they think too much about themselves. Their thoughts are always turned inward; they are always analyzing, dissecting themselves, wondering how they appear and what people think of them. If these people could only forget themselves and think of others, they would be surprised to see what freedom, ease, and grace they would gain; what success in life they would achieve. Timidity, shyness, and self-consciousness belong to the same family. We usually fi
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CHAPTER XX TACT OR COMMON SENSE
CHAPTER XX TACT OR COMMON SENSE
"Who is stronger than thou?" asked Braham; and Force replied "Address."—VICTOR HUGO. Address makes opportunities; the want of it gives them.—BOVEE. He'll suit his bearing to the hour, Laugh, listen, learn, or teach. ELIZA COOK. A man who knows the world will not only make the most of everything he does know, but of many things he does not know; and will gain more credit by his adroit mode of hiding his ignorance, than the pedant by his awkward attempt to exhibit his erudition.—COLTON. The art of
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CHAPTER XXI ENAMORED OF ACCURACY
CHAPTER XXI ENAMORED OF ACCURACY
"Antonio Stradivari has an eye That winces at false work and loves the true." Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty.—C. SIMMONS. Genius is the infinite art of taking pains.—CARLYLE. I hate a thing done by halves. If it be right, do it boldly; if it be wrong, leave it undone.—GILPIN. If I were a cobbler, it would be my pride The best of all cobblers to be; If I were a tinker, no tinker beside Should mend an old kettle like me. OLD SONG. If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon,
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CHAPTER XXII DO IT TO A FINISH
CHAPTER XXII DO IT TO A FINISH
Years ago a relief lifeboat at New London sprung a leak, and while being repaired a hammer was found in the bottom that had been left there by the builders thirteen years before. From the constant motion of the boat the hammer had worn through the planking, clear down to the plating. Not long since, it was discovered that a girl had served twenty years for a twenty months' sentence, in a southern prison, because of the mistake of a court clerk who wrote "years" instead of "months" in the record
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CHAPTER XXIII THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE
CHAPTER XXIII THE REWARD OF PERSISTENCE
Every noble work is at first impossible.—CARLYLE. Victory belongs to the most persevering.—NAPOLEON. Success in most things depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.—MONTESQUIEU. Perpetual pushing and assurance put a difficulty out of countenance, and make a seeming impossibility give way.—JEREMY COLLIER. "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." The nerve that never relaxes, the eye that never blanches, the thought that never wanders,—these are the masters of victory.—BURKE. "The pit ro
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Thomas Alva Edison
Thomas Alva Edison
A man who thus gives himself wholly to his work is certain to accomplish something; and if he have ability and common sense, his success will be great. How Bulwer wrestled with the fates to change his apparent destiny! His first novel was a failure; his early poems were failures; and his youthful speeches provoked the ridicule of his opponents. But he fought his way to eminence through ridicule and defeat. Gibbon worked twenty years on his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." Noah Webster spe
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CHAPTER XXIV NERVE—GRIP, PLUCK
CHAPTER XXIV NERVE—GRIP, PLUCK
"Never give up; for the wisest is boldest, Knowing that Providence mingles the cup; And of all maxims, the best, as the oldest, Is the stern watchword of 'Never give up!'" Be firm; one constant element of luck Is genuine, solid, old Teutonic pluck. Stick to your aim; the mongrel's hold will slip, But only crowbars loose the bulldog's grip; Small though he looks, the jaw that never yields Drags down the bellowing monarch of the fields! HOLMES. "Soldiers, you are Frenchmen," said Napoleon, coolly
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CHAPTER XXV CLEAR GRIT
CHAPTER XXV CLEAR GRIT
Let fortune empty her whole quiver on me, I have a soul that, like an ample shield, Can take in all, and verge enough for more. DRYDEN. There's a brave fellow! There's a man of pluck! A man who's not afraid to say his say, Though a whole town's against him. LONGFELLOW. Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.—GOLDSMITH. The barriers are not yet erected which shall say to aspiring talent, "Thus far and no farther."—BEETHOVEN. "Friends and comrades," said Pizar
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CHAPTER XXVI SUCCESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES
CHAPTER XXVI SUCCESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES
Victories that are easy are cheap. Those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fighting.—BEECHER. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them.—WASHINGTON IRVING. "I have here three teams that I want to get over to Staten Island," said a boy of twelve one day in 1806 to the innkeeper at South Amboy, N. J. "If you will put us across, I'll leave with you one of my horses in pawn, and if I don't send you back six dollars within forty-eight hour
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CHAPTER XXVII USES OF OBSTACLES
CHAPTER XXVII USES OF OBSTACLES
Nature, when she adds difficulties, adds brains.—EMERSON. Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.—SPURGEON. The good are better made by ill, As odors crushed are sweeter still. ROGERS. Though losses and crosses be lessons right severe, There's wit there ye'll get there, ye'll find no other where. BURNS. "Adversity is the prosperity of the great." "Kites rise against, not with, the wind." "Many and many a time since," said Harriet Martineau, referring to her fat
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CHAPTER XXVIII DECISION
CHAPTER XXVIII DECISION
Resolve, and thou art free.—LONGFELLOW. The heaviest charged words in our language are those briefest ones, "yes" and "no." One stands for the surrender of the will, the other for denial; one stands for gratification, the other for character. A stout "no" means a stout character, the ready "yes" a weak one, gild it as we may.—T. T. MUNGER. The world is a market where everything is marked at a set price, and whatever we buy with our time, labor, or ingenuity, whether riches, ease, fame, integrity
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CHAPTER XXIX OBSERVATION AS A SUCCESS FACTOR
CHAPTER XXIX OBSERVATION AS A SUCCESS FACTOR
Henry Ward Beecher was not so foolish as to think that he could get on without systematic study, and a thorough-going knowledge of the world of books. "When I first went to Brooklyn," he said, "men doubted whether I could sustain myself. I replied, 'Give me uninterrupted time till nine o'clock every morning, and I do not care what comes after.'" He was a hard student during four hours every morning; those who saw him after that imagined that he picked up the material for his sermons on the stree
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Henry Ward Beecher
Henry Ward Beecher
When he once got a taste of the power and helpfulness which comes from the study of real life, when he saw how much more forceful and interesting actual life stories were as they were being lived than anything he could get out of any book except the Bible, he was never again satisfied without illustrations fresh from the lives of the people he met every day. Beecher believed a sermon a failure when it does not make a great mass of hearers go away with a new determination to make a little more of
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CHAPTER XXX SELF-HELP
CHAPTER XXX SELF-HELP
I learned that no man in God's wide earth is either willing or able to help any other man.—PESTALOZZI. What I am I have made myself.—HUMPHRY DAVY. Be sure, my son, and remember that the best men always make themselves.—PATRICK HENRY. Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? BYRON. Who waits to have his task marked out, Shall die and leave his errand unfulfilled. LOWELL. "Colonel Crockett makes room for himself!" exclaimed a backwoods congressman in answ
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CHAPTER XXXI THE SELF-IMPROVEMENT HABIT
CHAPTER XXXI THE SELF-IMPROVEMENT HABIT
If you want knowledge you must toil for it.—RUSKIN. We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.—QUINTILLIAN. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.—ADDISON. A boy is better unborn than untaught.—GASCOIGNE. It is ignorance that wastes; it is knowledge that saves, an untaught faculty is at once quiescent and dead.—N. D. HILLIS. The plea that this or that man has no time for culture will vanish as soon as we desire culture so much that we begin to examine s
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CHAPTER XXXII RAISING OF VALUES
CHAPTER XXXII RAISING OF VALUES
"Destiny is not about thee, but within,— Thyself must make thyself." "The world is no longer clay, but rather iron in the hands of its workers," says Emerson, "and men have got to hammer out a place for themselves by steady and rugged blows." To make the most of your "stuff," be it cloth, iron, or character,—this is success. Raising common "stuff" to priceless value is great success. The man who first takes the rough bar of wrought iron may be a blacksmith, who has only partly learned his trade,
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CHAPTER XXXIII SELF-IMPROVEMENT THROUGH PUBLIC SPEAKING
CHAPTER XXXIII SELF-IMPROVEMENT THROUGH PUBLIC SPEAKING
It does not matter whether you want to be a public speaker or not, everybody should have such complete control of himself, should be so self-centered and self-posed that he can get up in any audience, no matter how large or formidable, and express his thoughts clearly and distinctly. Self-expression in some manner is the only means of developing mental power. It may be in music; it may be on canvas: it may be through oratory; it may come through selling goods or writing a book; but it must come
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CHAPTER XXXIV THE TRIUMPHS OF THE COMMON VIRTUES
CHAPTER XXXIV THE TRIUMPHS OF THE COMMON VIRTUES
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do, without a thought of fame.—LONGFELLOW. It is not a question of what a man knows but what use he can make of what he knows.—J. G. HOLLAND. Seest thou a man diligent in business? He shall stand before kings.—SOLOMON. The most encouraging truth that can be impressed upon the mind of youth is this: "What man has done man may do." Men of great achievements are not to be set on pedestals and reverenc
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CHAPTER XXXV GETTING AROUSED
CHAPTER XXXV GETTING AROUSED
"How's the boy gittin' on, Davis?" asked Farmer John Field, as he watched his son, Marshall, waiting upon a customer. "Well, John, you and I are old friends," replied Deacon Davis, as he took an apple from a barrel and handed it to Marshall's father as a peace offering; "we are old friends, and I don't want to hurt your feelin's; but I'm a blunt man, and air goin' to tell you the truth. Marshall is a good, steady boy, all right, but he wouldn't make a merchant if he stayed in my store a thousand
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Marshall Field
Marshall Field
Many people seem to think that ambition is a quality born within us; that it is not susceptible to improvement; that it is something thrust upon us which will take care of itself. But it is a passion that responds very quickly to cultivation, and it requires constant care and education, just as the faculty for music or art does, or it will atrophy. If we do not try to realize our ambition, it will not keep sharp and defined. Our faculties become dull and soon lose their power if they are not exe
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CHAPTER XXXVI THE MAN WITH AN IDEA
CHAPTER XXXVI THE MAN WITH AN IDEA
He who wishes to fulfil his mission must be a man of one idea, that is, of one great overmastering purpose, over shadowing all his aims, and guiding and controlling his entire life.—BATE. A healthful hunger for a great idea is the beauty and blessedness of life.—JEAN INGELOW. A profound conviction raises a man above the feeling of ridicule.—J. STUART MILL. Ideas go booming through the world louder than cannon. Thoughts are mightier than armies. Principles have achieved more victories than horsem
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CHAPTER XXXVII DARE
CHAPTER XXXVII DARE
The Spartans did not inquire how many the enemy are, but where they are.—AGIS II. What's brave, what's noble, let's do it after the high Roman fashion, and make death proud to take us.—SHAKESPEARE. Let me die facing the enemy.—BAYARD. Who conquers me, shall find a stubborn foe.—BYRON. No great deed is done By falterers who ask for certainty. GEORGE ELIOT. Fortune befriends the bold.—DRYDEN. To stand with a smile upon your face against a stake from which you cannot get away—that, no doubt, is her
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CHAPTER XXXVIII THE WILL AND THE WAY
CHAPTER XXXVIII THE WILL AND THE WAY
"I will find a way or make one." Nothing is impossible to the man who can will.—MIRABEAU. The iron will of one stout heart shall make a thousand quail: A feeble dwarf, dauntlessly resolved, will turn the tide of battle, And rally to a nobler strife the giants that had fled.—TUPPER. In the lexicon of youth which fate reserves for a bright manhood there is no such word as fail.—BULWER. When a firm and decisive spirit is recognized, it is curious to see how the space clears around a man and leaves
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CHAPTER XXXIX ONE UNWAVERING AIM
CHAPTER XXXIX ONE UNWAVERING AIM
Life is an arrow—therefore you must know What mark to aim at, how to use the bow— Then draw it to the head and let it go. HENRY VAN DYKE. The important thing in life is to have a great aim, and to possess the aptitude and perseverance to attain it.—GOETHE. "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." Let every one ascertain his special business and calling, and then stick to it if he would be successful.—FRANKLIN. "Why do you lead such a solitary life?" asked a friend of Michael Angelo. "A
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Joseph Jefferson
Joseph Jefferson
A Yankee can splice a rope in many different ways; an English sailor only knows one way, but that is the best one. It is the one-sided man, the sharp-eyed man, the man of single and intense purpose, the man of one idea, who cuts his way through obstacles and forges to the front. The time has gone forever when a Bacon can span universal knowledge; or when, absorbing all the knowledge of the times, a Dante can sustain arguments against fourteen disputants in the University of Paris, and conquer in
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CHAPTER XL WORK AND WAIT
CHAPTER XL WORK AND WAIT
What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.—H. P. LIDDON. I consider a human soul without education like marble in a quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties until the skill of the polisher sketches out the colors, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein that runs throughout the body of it.—ADDISON. Use your gifts faithfully, and they shall
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CHAPTER XLI THE MIGHT OF LITTLE THINGS
CHAPTER XLI THE MIGHT OF LITTLE THINGS
Think naught a trifle, though it small appear; Small sands the mountain, moments make the year, And trifles, life. YOUNG. It is but the littleness of man that sees no greatness in trifles.—WENDELL PHILLIPS. He that despiseth small things shall fall by little and little.—ECCLESIASTICUS. The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.—EMERSON. Men are led by trifles.—NAPOLEON. "A pebble on the streamlet scant Has turned the course of many a river." "The bad thing about a little sin is that it
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CHAPTER XLII THE SALARY YOU DO NOT FIND IN YOUR PAY ENVELOPE
CHAPTER XLII THE SALARY YOU DO NOT FIND IN YOUR PAY ENVELOPE
The quality which you put into your work will determine the quality of your life. The habit of insisting upon the best of which you are capable, of always demanding of yourself the highest, never accepting the lowest or second best, no matter how small your remuneration, will make all the difference to you between failure and success. "If the laborer gets no more than the wages his employer offers him, he is cheated; he cheats himself." A boy or a man who works simply for his salary, and is actu
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CHAPTER XLIII EXPECT GREAT THINGS OF YOURSELF
CHAPTER XLIII EXPECT GREAT THINGS OF YOURSELF
"Why," asked Mirabeau, "should we call ourselves men, unless it be to succeed in everything everywhere?" Nothing else will so nerve you to accomplish great things as to believe in your own greatness, in your own marvelous possibilities. Count that man an enemy who shakes your faith in yourself, in your ability to do the thing you have set your heart upon doing, for when your confidence is gone, your power is gone. Your achievement will never rise higher than your self-faith. It would be as reaso
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CHAPTER XLIV THE NEXT TIME YOU THINK YOU ARE A FAILURE
CHAPTER XLIV THE NEXT TIME YOU THINK YOU ARE A FAILURE
If you made a botch of last year, if you feel that it was a failure, that you floundered and blundered and did a lot of foolish things; if you were gullible, made imprudent investments, wasted your time and money, don't drag these ghosts along with you to handicap you and destroy your happiness all through the future. Haven't you wasted enough energy worrying over what can not be helped? Don't let these things sap any more of your vitality, waste any more of your time or destroy any more of your
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CHAPTER XLV STAND FOR SOMETHING
CHAPTER XLV STAND FOR SOMETHING
The greatest thing that can be said of a man, no matter how much he has achieved, is that he has kept his record clean . Why is it that, in spite of the ravages of time, the reputation of Lincoln grows larger and his character means more to the world every year? It is because he kept his record clean, and never prostituted his ability nor gambled with his reputation. Where, in all history, is there an example of a man who was merely rich, no matter how great his wealth, who exerted such a power
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Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
In his early career he had many opportunities to make a great deal of money by allying himself with crooked, sneaking, unscrupulous politicians. He had all sorts of opportunities for political graft. But crookedness never had any attraction for him. He refused to be a party to any political jobbery, any underhand business. He preferred to lose any position he was seeking, to let somebody else have it, if he must get smirched in the getting it. He would not touch a dollar, place, or preferment un
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CHAPTER XLVI NATURE'S LITTLE BILL
CHAPTER XLVI NATURE'S LITTLE BILL
Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all. FREDERICK VON LOGAU. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.—ECCLESIASTES. Man is a watch, wound up at first but never Wound up again: once down he's down forever. HERRICK. Old age seizes upon an ill-spent youth like fire upon a rotten house.—SOUTH. Last Sunday a
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NOTES FROM THE ANGELS' AUTOPSIES.
NOTES FROM THE ANGELS' AUTOPSIES.
What, is it returned so soon?—a body framed for a century's use returned at thirty?—a temple which was twenty-eight years in building destroyed almost before it was completed? What have gray hairs, wrinkles, a bent form, and death to do with youth? Has all this beauty perished like a bud just bursting into bloom, plucked by the grim destroyer? Has she fallen a victim to tight-lacing, over-excitement, and the gaiety and frivolity of fashionable life? Here is an educated, refined woman who died of
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CHAPTER XLVII HABIT—THE SERVANT,—THE MASTER
CHAPTER XLVII HABIT—THE SERVANT,—THE MASTER
Habit, if wisely and skilfully formed, becomes truly a second nature.—BACON. Habit, with its iron sinews, Clasps and leads us day by day. LAMARTINE. The chain of habit coils itself around the heart like a serpent, to gnaw and stifle it.—HAZLITT. You can not, in any given case, by any sudden and single effort, will to be true, if the habit of your life has been insincerity.—F. W. ROBERTSON. It is a beautiful provision in the mental and moral arrangement of our nature, that that which is performed
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CHAPTER XLVIII THE CIGARETTE
CHAPTER XLVIII THE CIGARETTE
We are so accustomed to the sight and smell of tobacco that we entirely overlook the fact that the tobacco of commerce in all its forms is the product of a poisonous weed. It is first a narcotic and then an irritant poison. It has its place in all toxicological classifications together with its proper antidotes. Tobacco has not achieved its almost universal popularity without strong opposition. In England King James launched his famous "Counterblaste" against its use. In Turkey, where men and wo
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CHAPTER XLIX THE POWER OF PURITY
CHAPTER XLIX THE POWER OF PURITY
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.—SERMON ON THE MOUNT. My strength is as the strength of ten Because my heart is pure. TENNYSON. Virtue alone raises us above hopes, fears, and chances.—SENECA. Even from the body's purity the mind Receives a secret sympathetic aid. THOMSON. Purity is a broad word with a deep meaning. It denotes far more than superficial cleanness. It goes below the surface of guarded speech and polite manners to the very heart of being. "Out of the heart are t
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Helen Keller
Helen Keller
There can be no such thing as an impure gentleman. The two words contradict each other. A gentleman must be pure. He need not have fine clothes. He may have had few advantages. But he must be pure and clean. And, if he have all outward grace and gift and be inwardly unclean, though he may call himself a gentleman, he is a liar and a lie. O, young man, guard your heart-purity! Keep innocency! Never lose it; if it be gone, you have lost from the casket the most precious gift of God. The first puri
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CHAPTER L THE HABIT OF HAPPINESS
CHAPTER L THE HABIT OF HAPPINESS
The highest happiness must always come from the exercise of the best thing in us. When you find happiness in anything but useful work, you will be the first man or woman to make the discovery. If you take an inventory of yourself at the very outset of your career you will find that you think you are going to find happiness in things or in conditions. Most people think they are going to find the largest part of their happiness in money, what money will buy or what it will give them in the way of
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CHAPTER LI PUT BEAUTY INTO YOUR LIFE
CHAPTER LI PUT BEAUTY INTO YOUR LIFE
When the barbarians overran Greece, desecrated her temples, and destroyed her beautiful works of art, even their savageness was somewhat tamed by the sense of beauty which prevailed everywhere. They broke her beautiful statues, it is true; but the spirit of beauty refused to die, and it transformed the savage heart and awakened even in the barbarian a new power. From the apparent death of Grecian art Roman art was born. "Cyclops forging iron for Vulcan could not stand against Pericles forging th
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CHAPTER LII EDUCATION BY ABSORPTION
CHAPTER LII EDUCATION BY ABSORPTION
John Wanamaker was once asked to invest in an expedition to recover from the Spanish Main doubloons which for half a century had lain at the bottom of the sea in sunken frigates. "Young men," he replied, "I know of a better expedition than this, right here. Near your own feet lie treasures untold; you can have them all by faithful study. "Let us not be content to mine the most coal, to make the largest locomotives, to weave the largest quantities of carpets; but, amid the sounds of the pick, the
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CHAPTER LIII THE POWER OF SUGGESTION
CHAPTER LIII THE POWER OF SUGGESTION
When plate-glass windows first came into use, Rogers, the poet, took a severe cold by sitting with his back to what he supposed was an open window in a dining-room but which was really plate-glass. All the time he was eating he imagined he was taking cold, but he did not dare ask to have the window closed. We little realize how much suggestion has to do with health. In innumerable instances people have been made seriously ill, sometimes fatally so, by others telling them how badly they looked, o
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CHAPTER LIV THE CURSE OF WORRY
CHAPTER LIV THE CURSE OF WORRY
This monster dogs us from the cradle to the grave. There is no occasion so sacred but it is there. Unbidden it comes to the wedding and the funeral alike. It is at every reception, every banquet; it occupies a seat at every table. No human intellect can estimate the unutterable havoc and ruin wrought by worry. It has ever forced genius to do the work of mediocrity; it has caused more failures, more broken hearts, more blasted hopes, than any other one cause since the dawn of the world. Did you e
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CHAPTER LV TAKE A PLEASANT THOUGHT TO BED WITH YOU
CHAPTER LV TAKE A PLEASANT THOUGHT TO BED WITH YOU
Shut off your mental steam when you quit work. Lock up your business when you lock up your office or factory at night. Don't drag it into your home to mar your evening or to distress your sleep. You can not afford to allow the enemies of your peace and happiness to etch their black pictures deeper and deeper into your consciousness. Many people lie down to sleep as the camels lie down in the desert, with their packs still on their backs. They do not seem to know how to lay down their burdens, an
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CHAPTER LVI THE CONQUEST OF POVERTY
CHAPTER LVI THE CONQUEST OF POVERTY
No one can become prosperous while he really expects or half expects to remain poor. We tend to get what we expect, and to expect nothing is to get nothing. When every step you take is on the road to failure, how can you hope to arrive at the success goal? Prosperity begins in the mind and is impossible while the mental attitude is hostile to it. It is fatal to work for one thing and to expect something else, because everything must be created mentally first and is bound to follow its mental pat
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William McKinley
William McKinley
When the whale ships in New Bedford Harbor and other ports were rotting in idleness, because the whale was becoming extinct, Americans became alarmed lest we should dwell in darkness; but the oil wells came to our rescue with abundant supply. And then, when we began to doubt that this source would last, Science gave us the electric light. There is building material enough to give every person on the globe a mansion finer than any that a Vanderbilt or Rothschild possesses. It was intended that we
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CHAPTER LVII A NEW WAY OF BRINGING UP CHILDREN
CHAPTER LVII A NEW WAY OF BRINGING UP CHILDREN
"Only a thought, but the work it wrought Could never by tongue or pen be taught, But it ran through a life like a thread of gold, And the life bore fruit a hundredfold." Not long ago there was on exhibition in New York a young horse which can do most marvelous things; and yet his trainer says that only five years ago he had a very bad disposition. He was fractious, and would kick and bite, but now instead of displaying his former viciousness, he is obedient, tractable, and affectionate. He can r
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CHAPTER LVIII THE HOME AS A SCHOOL OF GOOD MANNERS
CHAPTER LVIII THE HOME AS A SCHOOL OF GOOD MANNERS
Not long ago I visited a home where such exceptionally good breeding prevailed and such fine manners were practised by all the members of the family, that it made a great impression upon me. This home is the most remarkable school of good manners, refinement, and culture generally, I have ever been in. The parents are bringing up their children to practise their best manners on all occasions. They do not know what company manners mean. The boys have been taught to treat their sisters with as muc
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CHAPTER LIX MOTHER
CHAPTER LIX MOTHER
"All that I am or hope to be," said Lincoln, after he had become President, "I owe to my angel mother." "My mother was the making of me," said Thomas Edison, recently. "She was so true, so sure of me; and I felt that I had some one to live for; some one I must not disappoint." "All that I have ever accomplished in life," declared Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist, "I owe to my mother." "To the man who has had a good mother, all women are sacred for her sake," said Jean Paul Richter. The test
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CHAPTER LX WHY SO MANY MARRIED WOMEN DETERIORATE
CHAPTER LX WHY SO MANY MARRIED WOMEN DETERIORATE
A woman writes me: "You would laugh if you knew the time I have had in getting the dollar which I enclose for your inspiring magazine. I would get a pound less of butter, a bar less of soap. I never have a cent of my own. Do you think it wrong of me to deceive my husband in this way? I either have to do this or give up trying at all." There are thousands of women who work harder than their husbands and really have more right to the money, who are obliged to practise all sorts of deceit in order
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CHAPTER LXI THRIFT
CHAPTER LXI THRIFT
"Mony a mickle makes a muckle."—SCOTCH PROVERB. "A penny saved is a penny earned."—ENGLISH SAYING. "Beware of little extravagances; a small leak will sink a big ship."—FRANKLIN. "No gain is more certain than that which proceeds from the economical use of what we have."—LATIN PROVERB. "Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can."—JOHN WESLEY. "All fortunes have their foundation laid in economy."—J. G. HOLLAND. In the philosophy of thrift, the unit measure of prosperity is always the sma
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CHAPTER LXII A COLLEGE EDUCATION AT HOME
CHAPTER LXII A COLLEGE EDUCATION AT HOME
"Tumbling around in a library" was the phrase Oliver Wendell Holmes used in describing in part his felicities in boyhood. One of the most important things that wise students get out of their schooldays is a familiarity with books in various departments of learning. The ability to pick out from a library what is needed in life is of the greatest practical value. It is like a man selecting his tools for intellectual expansion and social service. "Men in every department of practical life," says Pr
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Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe
The physical gymnasium differs only in kind from the mental one. Thoroughness and system are as necessary in one as in the other. It is not the tasters of books—not those who sip here and there, who take up one book after another, turn the leaves listlessly and hurry to the end,—who strengthen and develop the mind by reading. To get the most from your reading you must read with a purpose. To sit down and pick up a book listlessly, with no aim except to pass away time, is demoralizing. It is much
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CHAPTER LXIII DISCRIMINATION IN READING
CHAPTER LXIII DISCRIMINATION IN READING
A few books well read, and an intelligent choice of those few,—these are the fundamentals for self-education by reading. If only a few well chosen, it is better to avail yourself of choices others have already made—old books, the standard works tested by many generations of readers. If only a few, let them be books of highest character and established fame. Such books are easily found even in small public libraries. For the purpose of this chapter, which is to aid in forming a taste for reading,
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CHAPTER LXIV READING A SPUR TO AMBITION
CHAPTER LXIV READING A SPUR TO AMBITION
The great use in reading is for self-discovery. Inspirational, character-making, life-shaping books are the main thing. Cotton Mather's "Essay to Do Good" influenced the whole career of Benjamin Franklin. There are books that have raised the ideals and materially influenced entire nations. Who can estimate the value of books that spur ambition, that awaken slumbering possibilities? Are we ambitious to associate with people who inspire us to nobler deeds? Let us then read uplifting books, which s
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CHAPTER LXV WHY SOME SUCCEED AND OTHERS FAIL
CHAPTER LXV WHY SOME SUCCEED AND OTHERS FAIL
Life's highway is strewn with failures, just as the sea bed is strewn with wrecks. A large percentage of those who embark in commercial undertakings fail, according to the records of commercial agencies. Why do men fail? Why do adventures into business, happily launched, terminate in disastrous wreck? Why do the few succeed and the many fail? Some failures are relative and not absolute; a partial success is achieved; a success that goes limping along through life; but the goal of ambition is unr
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CHAPTER LXVI RICH WITHOUT MONEY
CHAPTER LXVI RICH WITHOUT MONEY
Let others plead for pensions; I can be rich without money, by endeavoring to be superior to everything poor. I would have my services to my country unstained by any interested motive.—LORD COLLINGWOOD. I ought not to allow any man, because he has broad lands, to feel that he is rich in my presence. I ought to make him feel that I can do without his riches, that I can not be bought,—neither by comfort, neither by pride,—and although I be utterly penniless, and receiving bread from him, that he i
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Mark Twain
Mark Twain
One of the first great lessons of life is to learn the true estimate of values. As the youth starts out in his career all sorts of wares will be imposed upon him and all kinds of temptations will be used to induce him to buy. His success will depend very largely upon his ability to estimate properly, not the apparent but the real value of everything presented to him. Vulgar Wealth will flaunt her banner before his eyes, and claim supremacy over everything else. A thousand different schemes will
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