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“They themselves are makers of themselves”
A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits;
A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
Every thought seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own fruitage of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bad fruit.
Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean. The “divinity that shapes our ends” is in ourselves; it is our very self. Man is manacled only by himself. Thought and action are the jailers of Fate—they imprison, being base; they are also the angels of Freedom—they liberate, being noble.
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.
A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.
The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind,
Anxiety quickly demoralizes the whole body, and lays it open to the entrance of disease;
On the faces of the aged there are wrinkles made by sympathy, others by strong and pure thought, and others are carved by passion: who cannot distinguish them?
Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction.
Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish anything, and never can. They always lead to failure.
A strong man cannot help a weaker unless the weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition.
