When it is known that he is inclined to drink no enemy is so vicious as to lead him on. No enemy slaps him on the back and begs him to take "just another drink." No enemy laughs down his poor, feeble attempts at reform. No enemy tells him that it will not hurt him "just this time," and that he really must not refuse to be a good fellow "just for once."
The drunkard is MADE a drunkard, is pushed into the last depths of drunkenness, by his friends.
And it is his friends who kick him and leave him and despise him when he has sunk into the mire.
Did ever the drunkard's enemy hurt him as much as the friend has hurt him? ——
AMBITION KILLED BY FRIENDS
A young man starts out to succeed in life. His enemy may lie about him, may call him worthless. He may think he is hurting him. If there is anything in the young man, the enemy's lies and discouraging words only spur him on to greater effort. They do him good.
It is the friend that ruins the young man by false, injudicious, unearned praise.
As artist, poet, writer, clerk, or in any other effort, the young man begins his work.
It is his friends who tell him that he is a splendid success, when he needs to be told that, at best, he has some slight chance of success, and that everything depends on desperate effort.
Look at the young, conceited fool who, instead of struggling on, rails at the world, feels that he is not appreciated. He is a failure—a sad, foolish failure. He has been made a failure, not by the attacks of his enemies, but by the more dangerous praise of his friends. ——