“Hitch your wagon to a star!”
Such is the advice Emerson gave to ambitious youth. He meant well, no doubt, and indeed, his words are all right if taken with a pinch of salt. A boy should dream great dreams, of course, but he ought to set his dream-gauge so as to have it indicate a line of endeavor it will be possible for him to follow.
That which some call idleness I call the sweetest part of my life, and that is my thinking.—Felsham.
“Hitch your wagon to a star,”
Sounds eloquent, of course,
But it might prove more prudent, far,
To hitch it to a motor-car,
Or a steady-going horse.
We must learn to bear and to work before we can spare strength to dream.—Phelps.
The type of boy the world counts on to do it the most lasting good is the youth that does not permit the wings of fancy to carry him so far into the blue empyrean that he cannot touch the solid earth with at least the tiptoes of reason.