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“How
to Develop Self-Confidence
In Speech and Manner” eBook Online Version
You conquer fate by thought. If you think the fatal thought of men and institutions, you need never pull the trigger. The consequences of thinking inevitably follow.--Carlyle.
A generous prayer is never presented in vain; the petition may be refused, but the petitioner is always, I believe, rewarded by some gracious visitation.--Robert Louis Stevenson.
The boy's bright dream is all before; the man's romance lies far behind. Had we the present and no more, fate were unkind. But, brother, toiling in the night, still count yourself not all unblessed, if in the east there gleams a light, or in the west.--Anon.
What men most covet, wealth, distinction, power, are baubles nothing worth; they only serve to rouse us up, as children at the school are roused by exertion; our reward is in the race we run, not in the prize. Those few, to whom is given what they ne'er earned, having by favor or inheritance the dangerous gifts placed in their hands, know not, nor ever can, the generous pride that glows in him who on himself relies, entering the lists of life. He speeds beyond them all, and foremost in the race succeeds. His joy is not that he has got his crown, but that the power to win the crown is his.--Samuel Rogers.
Lord, for to-morrow and its needs, I do not pray; keep me from stain of sin, just for today. Let me both diligently work and daily pray; let me be kind in word and deed just for today. Let me be slow to do my will---prompt to obey; Help me to sacrifice myself just for today. Let me no wrong or idle word unthinking say; set thou a seal upon my lips just for today. So for to-morrow and its needs I do not pray; but keep me, guide me, hold me, Lord, just for today.--- WILBERFORCE.
The time will come when every human being will have unbounded faith and will live the life triumphant. Then there will be no poverty in the world, no failures, and the discords of life will all vanish.--Marden.
The utility of courage, both to the public and to the person possessed of it, is an obvious foundation of merit. But to any one who duly considers the matter, it will appear that this quality has a peculiar luster, which it derives wholly from itself, and from that noble elevation inseparable from it. Its figure, drawn by painters and by poets, displays, in each feature, a sublimity and daring confidence, which catches the eye, engages the affections, and diffuses, by sympathy, a like sublimity of sentiment over every spectator.--Hume.
Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest.--Dickens.
Courage enlarges, cowardice diminishes resources. In desperate straits the fears of the timid aggravate the dangers that imperil the brave.--Bovee.
The thing we long for, that we are, for one transcendent moment.--Lowell.
True courage is cool and calm. The bravest of men have the least of a brutal bullying insolence, and in the very time of danger are found the most serene, pleasant, and free.--Shaftesbury.
Our strength is measured by our plastic power. From the same materials one man builds palaces, another hovels; one warehouses, another villas; bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks until the architect makes them something else. Thus it is that in the same family, in the same circumstances, one man rears a stately edifice, while his brother, vacillating and incompetent, lives forever amid ruins; the block of granite, which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the resolute.--Lewes.
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals.--Shakespeare.
Courage consists not in hazarding without fear, but being resolutely minded in a just cause.--Plutarch.
Habit at first is but a silken thread, fine as the light-winged gossamers that sway In the warm sunbeams of a summer's day; a shallow streamlet, rippling o 'er its bed; a tiny sapling, ere its roots are spread; a yet unhardened thorn upon the spray; a lion's whelp that hath not scented prey; O little smiling child obedient led. Beware! That thread may bind thee as a chain that streamlet gather to a fatal sea; that sapling spread into a gnarled tree; that thorn, grown hard, may wound and give thee pain; that playful whelp his murderous fangs reveal; that child, a giant, crush thee 'neath his heel.--Anon.
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