“And keep cool,” said the Ice, whereat the young man cried: “Enough!”
Never suffer youth to be an excuse for inadequacy, nor age and fame to be an excuse for indolence.—Haydon.
The right-minded boy will be thoughtful but not so much absorbed that he is unable to take in the educative, uplifting sunshine all about him.
The greatest man is he who chooses with the most invincible reason.—Seneca.
Sharpen your wits as the woodman must sharpen his axe, but counsel moderation. The woodman who would stay at the stone and grind his axe all away in attempting to put a razor edge on it would be deemed very foolish.
Of course you will be, you must be thoughtful, for as Ruskin says: “In general I have no patience with people who talk about ‘the thoughtlessness of youth’ indulgently. I had infinitely rather hear of the thoughtlessness of old age, and the indulgence of that. When a man has done his work, and nothing can in any way be materially altered in his fate, let him forget his toil, and jest with his fate, if he will, but what excuse can you find for wilfulness of thought at the very time when every crisis of fortune hangs on your decision? A youth thoughtless, when all the happiness of his home forever depends on the chances or the passions of an hour! A youth thoughtless, when the career of all his days depends on the opportunity of a moment! A youth thoughtless, when his every action is a foundation-stone of future conduct, and every imagination a fountain of life or death! Be thoughtless in any after years, rather than now, though, indeed, there is only one place where a man may be nobly thoughtless, his death-bed. Nothing should ever be left to be done there.”
Self-conquest is the greatest of all victories.—Plato.
Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright.—Franklin.
My liveliest delight was in having conquered myself.-Rousseau.
But whatever else we may forget, let us remember that it is not work, but overwork that kills. Exercise gained through good, wholesome work is the greatest life-preserver man has yet discovered.