When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone.—Thomas Scott. The desire to do right and to deserve the approbation of all good people is very strong in every human breast. Not until a man has lost his moral sense of values would he trade his integrity and self-respect for any other gift the world could offer. This being true, who among us would care to be president if in order to occupy that exalted position he must be obviously in the wrong?
Once a body laughs he cannot be angry more.—James M. Barrie. Thus we see that after all is said and done, the one great prize for which we all aspire is the love and good will of our friends and of the world. For no matter Success is usually the result of a sharpened sense of what is wanted.—Frank Moore Colby. how much of wealth and fame may come to us, without the love and respect of our fellow beings we must ever remain poor and friendless.
He is the richest who deserves the most friends. Wealth is a matter of the He that falls in love with himself, will have no rivals.—Benjamin Franklin. heart and not of the pocket. A thousand slaves piling up wealth for their master cannot make him rich. It is not that which others do for us that makes us possessors of great wealth, but that which we do for others. All true riches are self made. Only when the hand and the heart are put into one’s work does it yield a lasting worth. In the final true analysis the picture forever belongs to the painter who paints it; the poem to the poet who writes it; the loaf of bread to the toiler who earns it. Wealth may acquire these things but it cannot own them.
A sinful heart makes a feeble hand.—Walter Scott. Therefore the true value of character is something that each must achieve for himself. It cannot be bought; it cannot be bequeathed to us; it must be earned by each individual who would possess it. Hence it is that these great riches may be acquired by all who desire to possess them.
Look within, for you have a lasting foundation of happiness at home that will always bubble up if you will but dig for it.—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Where are they to be found? Right here.
When may we obtain them? Right now.
Do you care to learn the only way in which you can come into possession of them? "Whoever you are—wise or foolish, rich or poor," says Rebecca Harding Davis, "God sent you into His To a friend’s house the road is never long.—Danish Proverb. world, as He sent every other human being, to help the men and women in it, to make them happier and better. If you do not do that, no matter what your powers may be, you are mere lumber, a worthless bit of world’s furniture. A Stradivarius, if it hangs dusty and dumb upon the wall, is not of as much real value as a kitchen poker which is used."
Honest toil is holy service; faithful work is praise and prayer.—Henry Van Dyke. So we learn that it is the fine practical spirit, content and willing to do the humble things which are possible of achievement that is doing most to lift the world to a higher and better plane. "Have you never met humble men and Give me the toiler’s joy who has seen the sunlight burst on the distant turrets in the land of his desire.— Muriel Strode. women," asks Gannett, "who read little, who knew little, yet who had a certain fascination as of fineness lurking about them? Know them, and you are likely to find them persons who have put so much thought and honesty and conscientious trying into their common work—it may be sweeping rooms, or planing You can buy a lot of happiness with a mighty small salary, but fashionable happiness always costs just a little more than you’re making.—George Horace Lorimer. boards, or painting walls—have put their ideals so long, so constantly, so lovingly into that common work of theirs, that finally these qualities have come to permeate not their work only, but so much of their being, that they are fine-fibred within, even if on the outside the rough bark clings."
If we are wisely introspective, we must reach the conclusion that humble though we may be, we are after all, a A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.—Washington Irving. component part of the great expression of being, and that we are well worth while. Then if we are worth while, it follows that all we do is worth while, for each of us is, in the end, the sum of all the things he has done. Once we have this idea that everything stands for something more than the mere thing itself—that it is correlated in its influences with all the other things that we and all others are doing, we shall invest all our tasks, little and big, with more of purpose and importance. Emerson says:
"There is no end to the sufficiency of character. It can afford to wait; it can Where there is one man who squints with his eyes, there are a dozen who squint with their brains.—Oliver Wendell Holmes. do without what it calls success; it cannot but succeed. To a well-principled man existence is victory. He defends himself against failure in his main design by making every inch of the road to it pleasant. There is no trifle and no obscurity to him: he feels the immensity of the chain whose last link he holds in his hand, and is led by it."