And works,—well he’s a genius, so they say.
If he can’t win a dollar, why, he tries to earn a dime;
If he can’t have it all he’ll capture some:
For doing just the best we can is better, every time,
Than waiting for a brain-wave to come.
I have seldom known any one who deserted truth in trifles that could be trusted in matters of importance.—Paley.
There are many echoes in the world, but few voices.—Goethe.
Consequences are unpitying.—George Eliot.
But it is to be remembered that the youth who does not think well of himself is not likely to do well. “Ability, learning, accomplishment, opportunity, are all well,” says Mathews, “but they do not, of themselves, insure success. Thousands have all these, and live and die without benefiting themselves or others. On the other hand, men of mediocre talents, often scale the dizzy steeps of excellence and fame because they have firm faith and high resolve. It is this solid faith in one’s mission—the rooted belief that it is the one thing to which he has been called,—this enthusiasm, attracting an Agassiz to the Alps or the Amazon, impelling a Pliny to explore the volcano in which he is to lose his life, and nerving a Vernet, when tossing in a fierce tempest, to sketch the waste of waters, and even the wave that is leaping up to devour him,—that marks the heroic spirit; and, wherever it is found, success, sooner or later, is almost inevitable.”
They who wish to sing always find a song.—Swedish.