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Concentration is a process of distraction from less important matters.
Self-consciousness is undue consciousness of self, and, for the purpose of delivery, self is secondary to your subject, not only in the opinion of the audience, but, if you are wise, in your own. To hold any other view is to regard yourself as an exhibit instead of as a messenger with a message worth delivering.
It is sheer egotism to fill your mind with thoughts of self when a greater thing is there—TRUTH.
The first sign of greatness is when a man does not attempt to look and act great.
There are things in this world bigger than self, and in working for them self will be forgotten, or—what is better—remembered only so as to help us win toward higher things.
True humility any man who thoroughly knows himself must feel; but it is not a humility that assumes a worm-like meekness; it is rather a strong, vibrant prayer for greater power for service—a
"All things are ready if the mind be so."
But remember that men erect no monuments and weave no laurels for those who fear to do what they can.
Monotony is poverty, whether in speech or in life. Strive to increase the variety of your speech as the business man labors to augment his wealth.
It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the machinery but the friction.—Henry Ward Beecher.
TRUE WORTH is in BEING—NOT SEEMING—in doing each day that goes by SOME LITTLE GOOD, not in DREAMING of GREAT THINGS to do by and by. For whatever men say in their BLINDNESS, and in spite of the FOLLIES of YOUTH, there is nothing so KINGLY as KINDNESS, and nothing so ROYAL as TRUTH.—Anonymous.
we do not eagerly devour the fruit of experience when it is impressively set before us on the platter of authority; we like to pluck fruit for ourselves—it not only tastes better, but we never forget that tree!
If fish bite too readily the sport soon ceases to be a sport.
Wilkie Collins' receipt for fiction writing well applies to public speech: "Make 'em laugh; make 'em weep; make 'em wait." Above all else make them wait; if they will not do that you may be sure they will neither laugh nor weep.
Any Missouri farmer will tell you that a rain that falls too fast will run off into the creeks and do the crops but little good.
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us to beasts.
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
In omnibus negotiis prius quam aggrediare, adhibenda est præparatio diligens—In all matters before beginning a diligent preparation should be made. —Cicero, De Officiis.
There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds. —Tennyson, In Memoriam.
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good. —Paine, Rights of Man.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. —Henley, Invictus.
A wooden horse may amuse the children, but it takes a live one to go somewhere.
"Every man that I meet is my superior in some way. In that I learn of him."
Providence is always on the side of the last reserve. —Napoleon Bonaparte.
"For a thousand men who can speak, there is only one who can think; for a thousand men who can think, there is only one who can see."
When the one man in a million who can see comes along, we call him Master. Old Mr. Holbrook, of "Cranford," asked his guest what color ash-buds were in March; she confessed she did not know, to which the old gentleman answered: "I knew you didn't. No more did I—an old fool that I am!—till this young man comes and tells me. 'Black as ash-buds in March.' And I've lived all my life in the country. More shame for me not to know. Black; they are jet-black, madam."
Henry Ward Beecher said: "I do not believe that I have ever met a man on the street that I did not get from him some element for a sermon. I never see anything in nature which does not work towards that for which I give the strength of my life. The material for my sermons is all the time following me and swarming up around me."
Too few can see 'sermons in stones' and 'books in the running brooks,' because they are so used to seeing merely sermons in books and only stones in running brooks.
Thinking is doing mental arithmetic with facts. Add this fact to that and you reach a certain conclusion. Subtract this truth from another and you have a definite result. Multiply this fact by another and have a precise product.
a single missing link means no chain.
"Don't give me the man who thinks he thinks, Don't give me the man who thinks he knows, But give me the man who knows he thinks, And I have the man who knows he knows!"
Alone, man is an unlighted candle.
A friend is worth making sacrifices for, both to gain and to keep; and our loves go out most dearly to those into whose inmost lives we have sincerely entered.
"I read it in a book" is to many a sufficient warranty of truth, but not to the thinker. "What book?" asks the careful mind. "Who wrote it? What does he know about the subject and what right has he to speak on it? Who recognizes him as authority? With what other recognized authorities does he agree or disagree?" Being caught trying to pass counterfeit money, even unintentionally, is an unpleasant situation. Beware lest you circulate spurious coin.
Do not confine your reading to what you already know you will agree with. Opposition wakes one up.
Suit your topics to your strength, And ponder well your subject, and its length; Nor lift your load, before you're quite aware What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear. —Byron, Hints from Horace.
For yesterday is already a dream and tomorrow is only a vision; but today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Information consists of a fact or a group of facts; knowledge is organized information—knowledge knows a fact in relation to other facts.
Emerson says: "Tomorrow will be like today. Life wastes itself whilst we are preparing to live."
Blessed is the man that maketh short speeches, for he shall be invited to speak again.
Decide, on beginning a description, what point of view you wish your hearers to take. One cannot see either a mountain or a man on all sides at once. Establish a view-point, and do not shift without giving notice.
Melancholy will make a rose-garden look gray.
Some details identify a thing with its class, while other details differentiate it from its class.
The only visual impression that can be effective is one that is unified.
Sometimes the feeling that a given way of looking at things is undoubtedly correct prevents the mind from thinking at all....
Most of our opinions and actions are not based upon conscious reasoning, but are the result of suggestion.
our feelings, thoughts and wills tend to follow the line of least resistance.
Our feelings influence our judgments and volitions much more than we care to admit. So true is this that it is a superhuman task to get an audience to reason fairly on a subject on which it feels deeply,
