When the little Corsican, Napoleon Bonaparte, a feeble youth at the beginning of his wonderful career, was presented to the convention of France as the man who could rescue the country from its peril, the president fixt his eye upon him dubiously and said: “Are you willing to undertake our defense?” “Yes,” was the calm and confident reply. “But are you aware of the magnitude of the undertaking?” asked the president again. “Fully,” said Napoleon, fixing his piercing eye upon the questioner, adding, “and I am in the habit of accomplishing that which I undertake.”
A similar self-confidence has often proved the one great secret of a successful career.
(2858)
As Napoleon was contemplating one of his great campaigns, his uncle, Cardinal Fesch, was dissuading him. Napoleon opened the window, pointed and said:
“Do you see that star?”
Cardinal Fesch said: “No; I see no star.”
Napoleon turned his back upon him and said: “But I see it.”
To see your star whether other men see it or not, whether other men believe in it or not; to believe in yourself—that may be to discover that hidden self that is nobler than you have ever been.
(2859)