Self-help: With Illustrations of Character and Conduct

Front Cover
Ticknor and Fields, 1861 - 430 pages
 

Contents

I
15
III
40
IV
67
V
96
VI
135
VII
180
VIII
202
X
252
XI
279
XIII
309
XIV
337
XV
371
XVI
396

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Page 245 - the more I am certain that the great difference between men, between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is energy, — invincible determination, — a purpose once fixed, and then death or victory ! That quality will do anything that can be done in this world ; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities, will make a two-legged creature a man without it.
Page 415 - O, it is excellent To have a giant's strength ; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant.
Page 21 - ... studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.
Page 392 - And to this habit (after my character of integrity) I think it principally owing that I had early so much weight with my fellow-citizens when I proposed new institutions, or alterations in the old, and so much influence in public councils when I became a member; for I was but a bad speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in my choice of words, hardly correct in language: and yet I generally carried my points.
Page 319 - Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking makes what we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections; unless we chew them over again, they will not give us strength and nourishment.
Page 343 - We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do ; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
Page 333 - And the great cry that rises from all our manufacturing cities, louder than their furnace blast, is all in very deed for this, — that we manufacture everything there except men...
Page 378 - Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious lifeblood of a master-spirit embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
Page 390 - THE crown and glory of life is character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate in the general good-will ; dignifying every station, and exalting every position in society.
Page 407 - Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in Thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, And speaketh the truth in his heart.

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