Keeping One’s Hair On

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 124, 19 February 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

Keeping One’s Hair On

“Books are wonderfully attractive, but if you think that everything is to be found in them, and that they will make you wise men,

and teach you how to live, you will find ultimately that you are making a great

mistake. I say that, because you will get so much into the habit of taking

other people’s opinions as right, that you will never be able to think for yourself.

“What most of us older people have

found Is that the more we can cultivate common sense or judgment about the problems of life, the more likely we are to be successful. It helps us also to apply that God-given quality—instinct.

“Anyone who wants to make a success of life must try to cultivate an even temper. They must learn to ‘keep their hair on.’ There is nothing so crippling as not to have command of one’s faculties when a great decision has to be made.

“To-day we are facing questions of tremendous importance, not only to this country, but to the whole world. Can we imagine that those people who, in various parts of the world, are upholding standards of British right and justice, will do their work well without self-discipline and the capacity for being calm, cool and collected?”—Sir Thomas Inskip (Minister for Co-or-dination of Defence) at the annual

prize-giving ceremony of Dudely Grammar School.