STICK TO IT
To read without reflection is like eating without digesting.—Burke.
O prim little postage-stamp, “holding your own”
In a manner so winning and gentle.
That you’re “stuck on” your task—(is that slang?)—you will own,
And yet, you’re not two-cent-imental.
I have noted with pride that through thick and through thin
You cling to a thing till you do it,
And, whatever your aim, you are certain to win
Because you seem bound to stick to it.
I learnt that nothing can constitute good breeding that has not good nature for its foundation.—Bulwer.
Sometimes when I feel just like shirking a task
Or quitting the work I’m pursuing,
I recall your stick-to-it-ive-ness and I ask,
“Would a postage-stamp do as I’m doing?”
Then I turn to whatever my hands are about
And with fortified purpose renew it,
And the end soon encompass, for which I set out,
If, only, like you, I stick to it.
The sages declare that true genius, so called,
Is simply the will to “keep at it.”
A “won’t-give-up” purpose is never forestalled,
No matter what foes may combat it.
And most of mankind’s vaunted progress is made,
O stamp! if the world only knew it,
By noting the wisdom which you have displayed
In sticking adhesively to it.
To acquire a few tongues, says a French writer, is the task of a few years; but to be eloquent in one is the labor of a life.—Colton.
Genius has a twin brother whose name is Patience. The one is quite often mistaken for the other, which is not strange since they resemble each other so closely their most intimate friends can scarcely tell them apart. These two brothers usually work together, which enables the world to tell who and what they are, for whenever either of them is employed singly and alone he is hardly ever recognized.
To be proud of learning is the greatest ignorance.—Bishop Taylor.
One of these brothers plants the tree and the other cares for it until the fruit is finally matured. The tree which Genius plants would never amount to much if Patience were to grow tired of watering and caring for it. There are weeds to be kept down, branches to be pruned, the soil must be looked after, worms’-nests must be destroyed, and many things must be done before the fruit is ready to harvest.
Life is not so short but that there is always room enough for courtesy.—Emerson.
If Patience were to refuse to work at any time the whole undertaking would prove a failure. But he does not. He performs his plain, simple duty, day after day, year after year, until, after long waiting, there is the beautiful fruit at last. It looks very pretty, but it is not yet quite ripe. Pick it too soon and it will shrivel up and lack flavor. But Patience has learned to wait until the day and the hour of perfection is at hand, and lo! there is his great reward!
A man’s own good breeding is the best security against other people’s ill manners.—Chesterfield.
The people say: “See this wonderful fruit that grew on the tree which Genius planted!” But Genius, who is wiser than the multitude, says, “See this wonderful fruit that grew on the tree which Patience tended!”
Common sense bows to the inevitable and makes use of it.—Wendell Phillips.
Patience and perseverance are the qualities that enable one to work out his problems in school and his larger problems in the big university of the busy world.
Above all things, reverence yourself.—Pythagoras.
Toil holds all genius as his own,
For in his grasp a strength is hid
To make of polished words or stone
A poem or a pyramid.
It has been very truly said that if we will pick up a grain a day and add to our heap we shall soon learn by happy experience the power of littles as applied to intellectual processes and possessions.
To Adam, Paradise was home; to the good among his descendants, home is Paradise.—Hare.
The road to success, says one of the world’s philosophers, is not to be run upon by seven-league boots. Step by step, little by little, bit by bit; that is the way to wealth, that is the way to wisdom, that is the way to glory. The man who is most likely to achieve success in life is the one who when a boy learns to