1-A bad compromise is better than a good lawsuit.-Elbert Hubbard.
2-A demagogue is a politician whose chief ambition is to stand on the grave of a great, dead industry, and boast, to a multitude of unemployed, of his bloody deeds.
3-A friend is Nature's masterpiece. 4-A good laugh is sunshine in a house.
4a-Ah, wasteful woman! she who may On her sweet self set her own price, Knowing he can not choose but pay, How has she cheapened paradise! How given for naught her priceless gift, How spoiled the bread and spilled the wine, Which spent with due respective thrift, Had made brutes men, and men divine!
5-Aim high and believe yourself capable of great things.
6-A little more patience, a little more charity for all, a little more devotion, a little more love; with less bowing down to the past, and a silent ignoring of pretended authority; brave looking forward to the future with more faith in our fellows, and the race will be ripe for a great burst of light and life.-Elbert Hubbard
7-All that is loyal within you will flower in the loyalty of the woman you love; whatever of truth abides in your soul will be soothed by the truth that it is hers; and her strength of character can only be enjoyed by that which is strong in you.-Maeterlinck
8-An American Religion: Work, Play, Breathe, Bathe, Study, Laugh, Live and Love.
9-And the Lord spake unto Fra Elbertus, saying: Verily, the most necessary thing in a
shop, store, bank, railroad-office or factory, is to keep the peace. He who scrappeth not with his neighbor, and shutteth up and closeth his gob, is getting a cinch on the fore- manship. And the foreman who smothereth a feud, and turneth the hose on the clique, is already engaged to the proprietor's daughter, and the painter is busy putting his name on the sign. Those who say, "Ha Ha! See me do him!" are already done for. For what anybody says is naught, save alone for him who says it. Beware of the clerk who deal- eth in fairy-tales about his fellow-workers, and for them maketh life difficult, for he is already putting salt on the tail of a blue envelope. A civil tongue and a deaf ear mean money in the bank. My son, deal not in Chicago Tongue, and it is you for a raise. He who doeth his work and cutteth out the gabfest shall, on the great day of readjustment, stand in.
10-An educated man is one with a universal sympathy for everything and a certain amount of knowledge about everything that is known, and who still is on the line of evolution and is learning to the end.-Fra Elbertus.
11-AN INVOCATION TO MAN: All the love I know is man's love. All the forgiveness I know is man's forgiveness. All the sympathy I know is man's sympathy. The fact that you are a human being brings you near to me -it is the bond that unites us. I understand you, because you are a part of myself. You may like me or not-it makes no difference; if ever you need my help, I am with you. Often we can help each other most by leaving each other alone; at other times we need the hand-grasp and the word of cheer. What your condition is in life will not prejudice me either for or against you. What you have done or not done will not weigh in the scale. If you have been wise and prudent I congratulate
you, unless you are unable to forget how wise and good you are then I pity you. If you have stumbled and fallen and been mired in the mud, and have failed to be a friend to yourself, then you of all people need friend- ship, and I am your friend. I am the friend of all, whether successful or unsuccessful, college-bred or illiterate. You all belong to my church. I could not exclude you if I would. But if I should shut you out, I would then close the doors upon myself and be a prisoner, indeed. The spirit of love that flows through me, and of which I am a part, is your portion, too. The race is one, and we trace to a common divine ancestry. I offer you no reward for being loyal to me, and surely I do not threaten you with pain, penalty, and dire ill-fortune if you are indifferent to me. You can not win me by price or adulation. You can not shut my heart toward you, even though you deny and revile me. Only the good can reach me, and no thought of love you send can be lost. All the kindness you feel for me should be given to those nearest you, and it will all be passed to your credit, for you your- self are the record of your thoughts, and no error can occur in the count. You belong to my church, and always and forever my friendship shall follow you, but never intrude. You belong to me-you are a member of my church-all are members of my church-none are excluded or can be excluded. So over the plains and prairies, over the mountains and seas, over cities and towns, in palaces, tene- ments, moving-wagons, dugouts, cottages, hovels, sleeping-cars, day-coaches, cabooses, cabs, in solitary cells behind prison-bars, or wandering out under the stars, my heart goes out to you, and I wish you well. Only love do I send, and a desire to bless and benefit. Amen. -Elbert Hubbard.
12-AN UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF LORD BYRON-My Dear Girl: Back of us lies a pleasant land, a country wherein you and I
disported ourselves together in untrammeled freedom and unheeding joyousness, and for a time forgot that, certainly, sooner or later the Commonplace would inevitably encroach upon our domain. That time has come-we are at the parting of the ways, and this letter is my kindly farewell to you. In it, I shall write as if all the world could read, while, in very truth, the letter must be destroyed lest a fear-and-hate-encompassed people should hap- pen on it, and thereupon brand you with their unreasonable and uncharitable stigma. The reason why you meant so much to me is, that of those I have known, you are the one above all others, who always, and under every circumstance, played the game as though every pawn were a kindling brilliant. You knew no weariness-in your philosophy there was only the Now. You and I held always that each was necessary to the other's happiness, and yet, the fact that you must have known that our paths divided just ahead occasioned you never a moment's depression. You may forget; your vows of constancy, if they ever recur to you at all, may provoke but your tolerant smile; but, by the gods, the fire of laughing, reckless Youth still runs riot in your veins, and I shall ever remember that when the Past was yours and mine together, there was never a moment when Life, for you, was not a thing to be appreci- ated with the keenest zest, to be enjoyed with the utmost abandon, and to be remem- bered without a regret. Herein, were you incomparable. I have known many men and women, but of them all, you got the most out of the chances that were yours. All others who have assisted me in decking with gar- lands of abandon the hours of recreation, have had some compunction aroused by either fear or conscience. You had none; I know them not, and so, between us, we made the world seem bright. I am an idealist, a dreamer. Fancy carries me to a land where the eye grows never dim, where the ear is ever
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