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“How
to Develop Self-Confidence
In Speech and Manner” eBook Online Version
If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon our immortal minds, if we imbue them with principles-- with the just fear of God and our fellow man--we engrave on those tablets something which will brighten to all eternity.--Daniel Webster.
Before putting yourself in peril, it is necessary to foresee and fear it; but when one is there, nothing remains but to despise it.--Fenelon.
In ordinary life a man who is unwatchful, wavering, unmanly, and weak, achieves nothing, gains neither respect nor confidence, and, if he does not become an absolute wreck, is still as nothing but a piece of driftwood floating aimlessly down the stream of life, and carried whithersoever chance currents may direct its course. Such a life accomplishes nothing for its possessor, and no man is helped or bettered by it. It may not be marked—probably it will not be--by any great crime or wickedness, but its very barrenness and uselessness are crimes, and it simply cumbers the earth until its end is reached. Dangers and temptations not watched against, and therefore carelessly yielded to, must leave blots and defects, to say no more, that long years of sorrow and effort may not wholly remove and cure. Opportunities suffered, through lack of watchfulness, to pass by unheeded and unused, are not likely to occur again.--Rowland Williams.
Courage, the highest gift, that scorns to bend to mean devices for a sordid end. Courage--an independent spark from heaven's bright throne, by which the soul stands raised, triumphant, high, alone, great in itself, not praises of the crowd, above all vice, it stoops not to be proud. Courage, the mighty attribute of powers above, by which those great in war are great in love. The spring of all brave acts is seated here, as falsehoods draw their sordid birth from fear.--Farquhar.
Violence is transient. Hate, wrath, vengeance, are all forms of fear, and do not endure. Silent, persistent effort will dissipate them all. Be strong.--Elbert Hubbard.
He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose brain quicker, whose spirit is entering into living peace. And the men who have this life in them are the only true lords and kings of the earth--they, and they only!--Buskin.
True worth is in being, not seeming--In doing each day that goes by Some little good, not in the dreaming Of great things to do by and by. For whatever men say in blindness, And spite of the fancies of youth, There's nothing so kingly as kindness, And nothing so royal as truth.--Alice Cary.
Nay, never falter; no great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty. No good is certain, but the stedfast mind, the undivided will to see the good: 'Tis that compels the elements, and wrings a human music from the indifferent air. The greatest gift the hero leaves his race is to have been a hero. Say we fail! We feel the high tradition of the world and leave our spirit in our children's breasts.--George Eliot.
No man ought to be convinced by anything short of assiduous and long-continued labors, issuing in absolute failure, that he is not meant to do much for the honor of God and the good of mankind.—Thomas Fowell Buxton.
The men whom I have seen succeed best in life have always been cheerful and hopeful men, who went about their business with a smile on their faces, and took the changes and chances of this mortal life likemen, facing rough and smooth alike as it came.—Charles Kingsley.
Whatever you want, if you wish for it long, with constant yearning and ceaseless desire;
If your wish soars upward on wings so strong that they never grow languid, never tire, why, over the storm clouds and out of the dark it will come flying some day to you, as the dove with the olive-branch flew to the ark, and the wish you've been dreaming, it will come true.--Anon.
Life should be full of earnest work, our hearts undashed by fortune's frown; let perseverance conquer fate, and merit seize the victor's crown; the battle is not to the strong, the race not always to the fleet, and he who seeks to pluck the stars will lose the jewels at his feet.--Phoebe Cary.
Heart, take courage! What the heart has once owned and had, it shall never lose.--Henry Ward Beecher.
He who ascends to the mountain tops shall find the loftiest peaks most wrapped in clouds and snow; he who surpasses or subdues mankind must look down on the hate of those below. Though high above the sun of glory glow. And far beneath the earth and ocean spread, bound him are icy rocks, and loudly blow contending tempests on his naked head; and thus reward the toils which to those summits led.--Byron.
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