“JUST A MINUTE”
One to-day is worth two to-morrows.—Franklin.
Whene’er he faced a task and knew
He should begin it,
He could not start to put it through
For “just a minute.”
And, though the case demanded speed
He could not move just then; but he’d
Be ready for it, yes, indeed!
In “just a minute.”
My young friend, do you know that there is but one person who can recommend you? Who is that, sir? Yourself.—Emerson.
His purposes were out of rhyme
By “just a minute.”
The whole world seemed ahead of time
By “just a minute.”
He could not learn to overhaul
His many duties, large and small,
But had to beg them, one and all,
To “wait a minute.”
Think before you speak.—Washington.
In manhood he was still delayed
By “just a minute.”
He might have won, had Fortune stayed
For “just a minute.”
But at the end of life he railed
At “cruel Fate,” and wept and wailed
Because he knew that he had failed
By “just a minute.”
There are people who do not know how to waste their time alone, and hence become the scourge of busy people.—De Bonald.
It is better to be alone than in bad company.—Washington.
Gold is good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic men are better than gold.—Abraham Lincoln.
If we make a careful study of the lives of the world’s great men and women, we shall find that their distinction was achieved by making the most of their spare minutes. The ordinary, commonplace, and inevitable tasks of life and the effort required to make a living are remarkably similar in the daily experience of most men and women. It is what one does with the remaining leisure moments that determines his individual taste and trend, and eventually gives him such distinction as he may attain. It is in our leisure hours that we are permitted to follow our “hobbies,” and it is in them that our truer selves find expression. Many of the greatest men in the world’s history achieved their fame outside of their regular occupations in the spare moments of time which most people think are of no serious use. Marden wisely observes that “no one is anxious about a young man while he is busy in useful work. But where does he eat his lunch at noon? Where does he go when he leaves his boarding-house at night? What does he do after supper? Where does he spend his Sundays and holidays? The great majority of youth who go to the bad are ruined after supper. Most of them who climb upward to honor and fame devote their evenings to study or work or the society of the wise and good. For the right use of these leisure hours, what we have called the waste of life, the odd moments usually thrown away, the author would plead with every youth.”
Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.—P. T. Barnum.
Let none falter who thinks he is right.—Abraham Lincoln.
The truest test of civilization is not the census, not the size of cities, not the crops; no, but the kind of man the country turns out.—Emerson.
Watt learned chemistry and mathematics while working at his trade of a mathematical-instrument maker. Darwin composed most of his works by writing his thoughts on scraps of paper wherever he chanced to be. Henry Kirke White learned Greek while walking to and from a lawyer’s office. Elihu Burritt acquired a mastery of eighteen languages and twenty-two dialects by improving the fragments of time which he could steal from his occupation as a blacksmith. Hundreds of similar examples could be given in which men have achieved distinction by improving the odd moments which others waste.
Inherited wealth is an unmitigated curse when divorced from culture.—Charles William Eliot.
And you, oh, my boy! when you have reached the age where the world has a right to expect that you will begin to prepare yourself for the work that is before you, lay hold, I beseech you, of these “spare moments,” and weld them into a beautiful purpose that shall make your life a joy to yourself and to all who shall come within the zone of your influence. Do not fail to improve the moments because they are so few. The fewer there are the more the need of improving them. Do not procrastinate, do not put off, do not defer the work of self-improvement till a more favorable time. Know that with the coming of every opportunity you have a duty to perform. That you must help yourself whenever you can, and that you must