Self Dependence

1895

A man must have a reserve of character and purpose.

To the good man no harm can come, be he alive or dead.

He must have a reserve of reputation. Let others think well of us; it will help us to think well of ourselves. No man is free who has not his own good opinion. A man will wear a clean conscience as he would a clean shirt if he knows his neighbors expect it of him. He must have a reserve of love, and this is won by the service of others. "He that brings sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from himself." He must form the ties of family and friendship, that, having something at stake in the goodness of the world, he will do something toward making the world really good.

When every American citizen has reserves like these, he has no need to beg for special favors. All he asks of legislation is that it keep out of his way. He demands no form of special guardianship or protection. He can pay as he goes. The man who cannot has no right to go. Of all forms of greed, the greed for free lunches, the desire to get something for nothing, is the most demoralizing and in the long run most dangerous. The flag of freedom has never floated over a nation of deadheads. — David Starr Jordan in Popular Science Monthly.

Nuggets — "Genius is Inspiration"

1907

Genius is inspiration. Talent is perspiration.

Do not measure your enjoyment by the amount of money spent in producing it.

Education turns the wild sweetbrier into the queenly rose.

A vigorous initiative and strong self faith make up the man of power.

Be sure that the honors you are striving for are not really dishonors.

What men get and do not earn is often a curse instead of a blessing.

You can purchase a man's labor, but you've got to cultivate his good will.

Ignorance itself is a disease, the deepest, most treacherous and damning malady of the soul.

Worry poisons the mind just as much as a deadly drug would poison the body and just as surely.

While you stand deliberating which book your son shall read first, another boy has read both. — Success Magazine.

Evangeline Weed — Making Personality to Order

1922

BOSTON — A medley of public officials, business men, manufacturers, debutantes and society matrons have worn a path to the studio of a modest and demure young woman in Beacon St.

They go to her filled with worldly knowledge and material experience of years but conquered by one of the greatest of man's weaknesses — self-consciousness.

She diagnoses their cases like a physician, cures them and endows them with man's greatest boon — personality.

She is Miss Evangeline Weed, proprietor of the Personality Institute, the first project of its kind.

Miss Weed numbers among her clients three mayors, two state senators, three representatives and many business men. These men, though successful, are handicapped by self-consciousness and unable to realize their full powers because of undeveloped personality.

—The Lima News, Lima, Ohio, Aug. 26, 1922, p. 1.

Grafting In a New Root — Renew Your Old Life, Do Something New

1921

By DR. WM. E. BARTON

IF THE top of a tree dies down, or does not bear a satisfactory kind of fruit, new branches can be grafted in. But what if it be the root that dies? Is there any way of grafting in a new root?

In Riverside, California, stand the two parent navel orange trees. If I have the information correctly, the entire navel orange industry on the Pacific coast began with the successful propagation of that kind of orange from these two trees.

One of them stands on Magnolia avenue, and the other was transplanted by President Theodore Roosevelt, and stands in front of the Mission Inn.

Both these trees are very old and manifestly dying. But they are trying the experiment of creating a new root for one of them. If that succeeds, I presume they will do the same for the other.

They take a vigorous young tree, cut off its top, plant it as close to the old tree as possible and at an angle, and graft the top into the side of the old tree a little above the root.

They have grafted in several such young roots, and they appear to be growing and to be saving the life of the old tree.

Such an undertaking lends itself to reflection. There are men who are dying at the top because they have not sufficient root. Why not dig down near the root, and put in a new one?

You can learn Greek at forty, or study Browning at fifty, or become an expert on psychoanalysis at sixty, or make yourself either a learned man or a fool at seventy.

Maybe you do not care for those particular studies — in that case there are others.

Why should not a man who lacked opportunities, in his youth for higher education, set about it in middle life, and pursue a course of good reading? Why not study astronomy, or botany, or literature?

Many men die a good many years before the undertaker carts them away. A man begins to die when he ceases to grow. Why not graft in a new root?

Advice Worth Reading, Heeding for Good Business, Success

1878

It is easier to be a good business man than a poor one. Half the energy displayed in keeping ahead that is required to catch up when behind will save credit, give more time to business, and add to the profit and reputation of your work. Honor your engagements. If you promise to meet a man, or do a certain thing at a certain moment, be ready at the appointed time.

If you go out on business, attend promptly to the matter in hand, and then as promptly go ahead on your own business. Do not stop to tell stories in business hours. If you have a place of business, be found there when wanted. No man can get rich by sitting around stores and saloons. If you have to labor for a living, remember that one hour in the morning is better than two at night.

If you employ others, be on hand to see that they attend to their duties, and to direct with regularity, promptness and liberality. Do not meddle with any business you know nothing of. Time is money. Never use quick words, or allow yourself to make hasty or ungentlemanly remarks to those in your employ, for to do so lessens their respect for you and your influence over them.

Help yourself and others will help you. Be faithful over interests confided to your keeping, and in all good time your responsibilities will be increased. Do not be in too great haste to get rich. Do not build until you have arranged and laid a good foundation. Do not — as you hope to work for success — spend time in idleness. If your time is your own, business will suffer if you do; if it is given to another for pay, it belongs to him, and you have no more right to steal it than you have money.

Be obliging. Strive to avoid harsh words and personalities. Do not kick every stone in the path; many miles can be made in a day by going steadily on. Pay as you go. A man of honor respects his word as he does his bond. Ask but never beg. Help others when you are able; but never give when you cannot afford to, simply because it is fashionable. Learn to say "no." No necessity for snapping it out; but say it firmly and respectfully.

Have but few confidants, and the fewer the better. Use your own brains rather than those of others. Learn to think and act for yourself. Be vigilant. Keep ahead rather than behind the times.

Words of Wisdom

1878

Go among great folks for great sinners.

Love drifts into hate more easily than indifference into animosity.

He is no true friend who has nothing, but compliments and praise for you.

Sharp and intelligent rascals are more respected by the world than virtuous fools.

Many people find their only happiness in forcing themselves to be unhappy.

Ennui is a malady for which the only remedy is work; pleasure is only a palliative.

He who has no desire to improve upon his present condition, is usually one who most needs improvement.

Adverse criticism is cheaper than noble attempts to improve upon existing models.

We could not endure solitude were it not for the powerful companionship of hope or of some unseen one.

It is not difficult to do good for the means are constantly clustering about every man's lips and hands.

Pride is like the beautiful acacia, that lifts its head proudly above its neighbor plants, forgetting that it too, like them, has its root in the dirt.

We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny unless we have taught ourselves to consider everything as moonshine compared with the education of the heart.

The great blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach, but we shut our eyes and, like people in the dark, we fall foul upon the very thing we search for without finding it.

Evils in the journey of life are like the hills which alarm travelers upon their road; they both appear great at a distance, but when we approach them we find that they are far less insurmountable than when we had conceived them.

Manners are the shadows of virtues; the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect. If we strive to become, then, what we strive to appear, manners may often be rendered useful guides to the performance of our duties.

Among the many arguments, while others have been refuted, this alone remains unshaken, that we ought to beware of committing injustice rather than of being injured, and that, above all, a man ought to study not to appear good, but to be so, both privately and publicly.

It is resignation and contentment that are best calculated to lead us safely through life. Whoever has not sufficient power to endure privations and even suffering can never feel that he is armor proof against painful emotion — nay, he must attribute to himself, or at least to the morbid sensitiveness of his nature, every disagreeable feeling he may suffer.

Hold Up Your Head, For Mental, Physical Stimulation

1916

HOLD UP YOUR HEAD.

It Will Stimulate You Mentally as Well as Physically.

In a letter to Robert Grimshaw of the New York University William Muldoon gives advice that it would be well for every man and woman, boy and girl in America to take to heart. He says:

"I was taught in early manhood not to throw my shoulders back, stick my chest out, draw my stomach in or hold my chin down like a goat preparing to butt, but to always try and touch some imaginary thing with the crown of my head. If one tries to do that — first understands how to try and then tries — he doesn't have to pay any attention to the rest of his physical being. That effort to touch something above him not with his forehead, but with the crown of his head, will keep every particle of his body in the position that nature intended it should be.

"And as a boy I was advised to frequently back up against the wall and make the back of my head, my shoulders, hips, heels all press against the wall at the same time, and in that way get an idea of what was straight, or, in other words, how crooked I was becoming by drooping."

Both to young and old Mr. Muldoon's "hold your head up" suggestion is inspiriting. Try it. The effect physically and mentally is immediate. When the head goes higher the impulse is to deeper breathing. A man finds more elasticity in his limbs. He steps out with more ease. There is more spring to his gait. He isn't a lumbering, shambling creature, but a man alive. With the elevation of the crown of the head there seems to come clearer thinking, a more buoyant feeling and a brighter outlook. — Commerce and Finance.

How to Improve Ears That Project Far From Head

1908

Because of the number of inquiries as to whether it is possible to improve projecting ears, I am writing this special advice. Such a deformity — for ears that stick far out from the head can scarcely be termed otherwise — is one for which there is no remedy after years of maturity are reached. For when one advances beyond the period of early youth the cartilage becomes hard and unyielding, and only a surgical operation has any effect. Such treatment is expensive, and so few persons can avail themselves of its benefits.

It is barely possible that months of bandaging might accomplish a reduction in the distance from the head, but of this I am rather doubtful. If it were possible to soak the ears so thoroughly in oil as to soften the hard substances and at the same time hold them close to the head, the protruding might become less. Theoretically this is undoubtedly so; practically, I doubt if the longest course of this treatment would be effective. It is the surgeon's knife or the continuance of projecting ears.

The most annoying part of homely ears is that proper care in youth would have kept them inconspicuous, if it did not make them pretty, and even a natural tendency to projection, if taken in time, could have been checked.

—MARGARET MIXTER.

Have Confidence in Yourself and You Will Succeed

1920

TWO ONE-LEGGED MEN
By Napoleon Hill

In the town of Wichita Falls, Texas, I saw a one-legged man sitting on the side-walk begging for alms.

A few questions brought out the fact that he had a fair education. He said he was begging because no one would give him work. "The world is against me and I have lost confidence in myself," he said.

Ah, there was the rub!

"I have lost confidence in myself."

Across the hall from my office is another one-legged man. I have known him for several years and I know that his schooling was slight. He has less training than the one-legged beggar.

But he is earning a thousand dollars a month. As Sales Manager of a manufacturing concern he is directing the efforts of fifty men.

The beggar displayed the stump of his amputated leg as evidence that he needed alms. The other one legged man covered up the stump of his lost leg so it would not attract attention.

The difference between the two men exists merely in viewpoint. One believes in himself and the other does not! The one who believes in himself could give up the other leg and both arms and still earn a thousand dollars a month. He could even give up both eyes, to boot, and still earn the money.

The world never defeats you until you defeat yourself. Milo C. Jones, of "Little Pig Sausage" fame, became a wealthy man out of the sausage business after paralysis had stricken him down and taken away the use of nearly every muscle in his body. He couldn't turn over in bed without aid.

As long as you have faith in yourself and that wonderful mind of yours continues to function properly, YOU CANNOT BE DEFEATED IN ANY LEGITIMATE UNDERTAKING. This statement is made without qualifications, because it is true.

—The Ada Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, February 13, 1920, page 6.

Note: $1,000 a month in 1920 was a tremendous amount. It meant doing really really well.