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People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the
huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at
the circular motion of the stars, and they pass themselves by without wondering. Wonder is the basis of worship. One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed
they must be defended against the heaviest odds. With the power of conviction, there is no sacrifice. Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching
them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them
as your guides, and following them you reach your destiny. The attainment of an ideal is often the beginning of a
disillusion. All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who
wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the
frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be the blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king. Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for
everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving
something bigger and better than your current situation. God has two dwellings; one in heaven, and the other in a
meek and thankful heart. You will have many opportunities in life to keep your
mouth shut: You should take advantage of every one of them. You can make more friends in two months by becoming
interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people
interested in you. There are two types of people. Those we who come into a
room and say, "Well, here I am!" and those who come in and say, "Ah, there
you are." No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of
it to anyone else. It is better to wear out than to rust out. I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my
inventions come by accident; they came by work. Work is victory. Labor disgraces no man, but occasionally men disgrace
labor. When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our hearts,
the circle of Creation is completed inside us, the doors of our souls fly open and love
steps forth to heal everything in sight. Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as
to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances. You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you
can always control what goes on inside. No one can make you jealous, angry, vengeful, or greedy --
unless you let him. The one thing over which you have absolute control is your
own thoughts. It is this that puts you in a position to control your own destiny. Never allow anyone to rain on your parade and thus cast a
pall of gloom and defeat on the entire day. Remember that no talent, no self-denial, no
brains, no character, are required to set up in the fault-finding business. Nothing
external can have any power over you unless you permit it. Your time is too precious to be
sacrificed in wasted days combating the menial forces of hate, jealously, and envy. Guard
your fragile life carefully. Only God can shape a flower, but any foolish child can pull
it to pieces. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will
not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of
educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. What's going on in the inside shows on the outside. Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that
goes. Man is more powerful than matter. Circumstances may cause interruptions and delays, but
never lose sight of your goal. Prepare yourself in every way you can by increasing your
knowledge and adding to your experience, so that you can make the most of opportunity when
it occurs. To understand the world one must not be worrying about
one's self. No matter what a man's past may have been, his future is
spotless. Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. The best thing about the future is that it comes only one
day at a time. The future lies before you, like paths of pure white snow.
Be careful how you tread it, for every step will show. You find what you look for in life. If you look for the
good, you will find it. If you look for bad, you'll find that too. Choose to see the good! Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you
take it. To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a
heaven. If you can react the same way to winning and losing,
that's a big accomplishment. That quality is important because it stays with you the rest
of your life, and there's going to be a life after tennis that's a lot longer than your
tennis life. It's how you deal with failure that determines how you
achieve Remind thyself, in the darkest moments, that every failure
is only a step toward success, every detection of what is false directs you toward what is
true, every trial exhausts some tempting form of error, and every adversity will only
hide, for a time, your path to peace and fulfillment. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt
discarded is another step forward. Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a
day in your life. If you want to be a winner, hang around with winners Every man becomes, to a certain degree, what the people he
generally converses with are. Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem
your own reputation, for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company. He who postpones the hour of living is like the rustic who
waits for the river to run out before he crosses. Begin to weave and God will give the thread. Manana is often the busiest day of the week. Don't wait for extraordinary circumstance to do good; try
to use ordinary situations. Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who
could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of
the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.
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