“Get a thousand millions. Your day will come, and in due course the graveyard rat will gnaw as calmly at your bump of acquisitiveness as at the mean coat of the pauper.
“Then shall we strive for power?
“The names of the first great kings of the world are forgotten, and the names of all those whose power we envy will drift to forgetfulness soon. What does the most powerful man in the world amount to standing at the brink of Niagara, with his solar plexus trembling? What is his power compared with the force of the wind or the energy of one small wave sweeping along the shore?
“The power which man can build up within himself, for himself, is nothing. Only the dull reasoning of gratified egotism can make it seem worth while.
“Then what is worth while? Let us look at some of the men who have come and gone, and whose lives inspire us. Take a few at random:
“Columbus, Michael Angelo, Wilberforce, Shakespeare, Galileo, Fulton, Watt, Hargreaves—these will do.
“Let us ask ourselves this question: ‘Was there any one thing that distinguished all their lives, that united all these men, active in fields so different?’
“Yes. Every man among them, and every man whose life history is worth the telling, did something for the good of other men....
“Get money if you can. Get power if you can. Then, if you want to be more than the ten thousand million unknown mingled in the dust beneath you, see what good you can do with your money and your power.
“If you are one of the many millions who have not and can’t get money or power, see what good you can do without either.