My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die.
The child is father of the man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
—Wordsworth
Be but yourself, be pure, be true,
And prompt in duty; heed the deep
Low voice of conscience; through the ill
And discord round about you, keep
Your faith in human nature still.
—Elizabeth Whittier
Four things a man must learn to do
If he would make his record true;
To think, without confusion, clearly;
To love his fellow-men sincerely:
To act from honest motives purely;
To trust in God and Heaven securely.
—Henry Van Dyke
Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel.
—Shakespeare
Never do anything of which you will have cause to be ashamed. There is one good opinion which is of the greatest importance to you, namely, your own. "An easy conscience", says Seneca, "is a continual feast".—Lubbock