THINGS THOUGHTFUL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 10 June 1939, Page 15

THINGS THOUGHTFUL

ACHIEVEMENT j It is not the power to achieve that matters, but the eventual good of so achieving!—Walter do la Mare. SILENCE Silence is a friend that will never betray—Confucius! PERFECT VALOUR } Perfect valour consists in doing with- ; out a witness all that we should bo j capable of doing before the whole i | world. —La Rochefoucauld. FEW WANTS By desiring little, a poor man makes ; himself rich.—Democritus. NEVER GIVE UP AN UNDERTAKING i All men should cultivate a fixed and j firm determination, and vow that what | they once undertake they will never I give up.—Buddha. ! STRENGTH AND PERSEVERANCE There are only two roads by which j any important goal can be reached — | sheer strength and perseverance.— | Goethe. SUNSHINE AND RAIN ! Life, believe, is not a dream So dark as sages say; Oft a lively morning rain Foretells a pleasant day. —Charlotte Bronte. NO SUCH THING AS CHANCE There is no such thing as chance. We have invented this word to express the known effect of every unknown cause.—Voltaire. ACCEPTING THINGS CHEERFULLY It were better to accept it as it comes and be cheerful, whichever way the wind blows, whether it be hot or cold, ' rainy or dry.—J. R. Miller. LIFE IS LABOUR The happiness of men consists in life. ; And life is labour. —Tolstoy. i • . • • HELPING THE FUTURE Let us be such as help the life of i the future. —Zoroaster. THE BLUE SKY ABOVE ONE [ To one who has been long in city i pent, ’tis very sweet to look into the i fair and open face of heaven; to breathe ; a prayer full in the smile of the blue i firmament. —Keats.

THE WISE, STRONG MAN The wise and strong man is often the architect of his own good fortune. —Tasso. IF HEARTS BE TRUE If hearts be true and fast, 111 fates may hurt us, but not harm, at last.—E. Arnold. THE BIRDS IN WINTER In winter, when the evergreens Have seen their plumpness go; When all the little holly leaves Wear padded gloves of snow — We'll pay the birds for their past songs, ; In bread that's white and new: j Jack Frost, the finest artist known, Shall be the kindest, too. —W. H. Davies. i THE MANIFESTATION OF THE ! SPIRIT | To each one is given the manifests- 1 lion of the Spirit to profit withal. For j to one is given through the Spirit 1- the j word of wisdom; and to another the , I word of knowledge, according to the j same Spirit; to another faith, in the j same Spirit, and to another gifts of I healings, in the one Spirit.—St. Paul. I PERFECTING A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP There is always a rich reward for i the pains we take in trying to perfect j a personal relationship.—Frederick Harris. LETTING TIME SLIP If you let slip time, like a neglected rose, It withers on the stalk with languish'd head.—Milton. AN ALL-ABSORBING IDEA The persistence of an all-absorbing idea is terrible. —Victor Hugo. WORK DONE IN RIVALRY Nothing is ever done beautifully which is done in rivalry, nor nobly which is done in pride.—Ruskin. NOW IS THE HOUR OF OPPORTUNITY Opportunities do not come with their 1 values stamped upon them. Every one - must be challenged. A day dawns quite • like other days, and a single hour quite like other hours, but in that day and ' that hour the chance of a lifetime 1 faces us. : FROM GOOD TO BETTER > What is our duty here? To tend ; From good to better, thence to best; I Grateful to drink life’s cup, then bend ' Unmurmuring to our bed of rest; 5 To pluck the flwo’rs that round us 5 blow, ; Scattering their fragrance as we go. : And so to live, that when the sun • Of our life’s day shall sink in night, 1 Memorials sweet of mercies done May shrine our names in mem’ry's 5 light, 1 And each blest seed we scattered bloom 3 A hundred fold in years to come. —Sir John Bowring.

THE MORNING AND THE EVENING Consider the phenomena of morn or eve, and you will say that Nature has perfected herself by an eternity of

practice—evening stealing over the fields, the stars coming to bathe in retired waters, the shadows of the trees creeping farther and farther into > the meadows and a myriad of phenom- ! ena beside.—Thoreau. THE VIRTUES OF WORK j Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day which must be done whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance, self-control, • diligence, strength of will, content, and ? a hundred virtues which the idle will ; never know.—Charles Kingsley. I ONE THING AT A TIME j » With a few exceptions (so few, in- ! deed, that they need scarcely be taken ! into a practical estimate), any person i may learn anything upon which he sets { his heart. To ensure success, he has ! ; simply so to discipline his mind as to 1 check its vagrancies, to cure it of its ! constant proneness to be doing two or . ; more things at a time, and compel it ! to direct its combined energies simul- j taneously to a single object, and thus i to do one thing at once. This I con- j sider as one of the most difficult, but | ~ one of the most useful, lessons that a j young man can learn.—Dr. Olinthus i s Gregory. i YOUR OWN TASK No one of my fellows can do that special work for me which I come into the world to do: he may do a higher h work, but he cannot do my work. I r cannot hand my work over to him, any s more than I can hand over my ref sponsibility or my gifts.—Ruskin.