No doubt we should all be much more thoughtful of our many present opportunities and make better use of them were we frequently to ask ourselves,
Genius is the transcendent capacity for taking trouble first of all. – Carlyle.
We shall do so much in the years to come,
But what have we done to-day?
We shall give our gold in a princely sum,
But what did we give to-day?
We shall lift the heart and dry the tear,
For dreams, to those of steadfast hope and will, are things wherewith they build their world of fact. – Alicia K. Van Buren.
We shall plant a hope in the place of fear,
We shall speak the words of love and cheer;
But what did we speak to-day?
We shall be so kind in the after while,
But what have we been to-day?
Love is the leaven of existence. – Melvin L. Severy.
We shall bring each lonely life a smile,
But what have we brought to-day?
We shall give to truth a grander birth,
And to steadfast faith a deeper worth,
We shall feed the hungering souls of earth;
But whom have we fed to-day?
No man can rest who has nothing to do. – Sam Walter Foss.
We shall reap such joys in the by and by,
But what have we sown to-day?
We shall build us mansions in the sky,
But what have we built to-day?
’T is sweet in idle dreams to bask,
But here and now do we do our task?
Yes, this is the thing our souls must ask,
"What have we done to-day?"
Among the every-day accomplishments which everyone should wish to possess is a knowledge of the fine art of smiling. To know how and when to smile, not too much and not too little, is a fine mental and social possession.
Work is no disgrace but idleness is. – Hesiod. Hawthorne says: "If I value myself on anything it is on having a smile that children love." Any one possessing a smile that children as well as others may love is to be congratulated. A pleasant, smiling face is of great worth to its possessor and to the world that is privileged to look upon it.
Shoddy work is not only a wrong to a man’s own personal integrity, hurting his character; but also it is a wrong to society. Truthfulness in work is as much demanded as truthfulness in speech. – Hugh Black. A smile is an indication that the one who is smiling is happy and every happy person helps to make every one else happy. Yet we all understand that happiness does not mean smiling all the time. There is truly nothing more distressing than a giggler or one who is forever grimacing. "True happiness," says one of our most cheerful writers, "means the joyous sparkle in the eye and the The flowering of civilization is in the finished man, the man of sense, of grace, of accomplishment, of social power – the gentleman. – Ralph Waldo Emerson. little, smiling lines in the face that are so quickly and easily distinguished from the lines produced by depression and frowning that grow deeper and deeper until they become as hard and severe as if they were cut in stone." Such happiness is one of the virtues which people of all classes and ages, the world over, admire and enjoy. "We do not know what ripples of healing are set in motion," It is all very well to growl at the cold-heartedness of the world, but which of us can truthfully say that he has done as much for others as others have done for him? – Patrick Flynn. says Henry Drummond, "when we simply smile on one another. Christianity wants nothing so much in the world as sunny people."
Most persons are very quick to see whether or not a smile is genuine or is manufactured and put on like a mask for the occasion. The automatic, stock-in-trade smile hardly ever fits the face that tries to wear it. It is a little too wide or sags at the corners or something else is wrong A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work, and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. – Emerson. with it.
A smile may be as deep as a well and as wide as a church door; it may be "sweeter than honey," but the instant we detect that it is not genuine, it loses its charm and becomes, in fact, much worse than no smile at all. Smiles that are genuine are always just right both in quality and quantity. So the only really safe rule is for us not to smile until we feel like it and then we shall get on all right. And we ought to feel like smiling Some people meet us like the mountain air and thrill our souls with freshness and delight. – Nathan Haskell Dole. whenever we look into the honest face of any fellow being. A smile passes current in every country as a mark of distinction.
But it is even possible to overdo in the matter of smiling. "I can’t think of anything more irritating to the average human being," says Lydia Horton Knowles, "than an incessant, everlasting smile. There are people who have it. When things go wrong they have a patient, martyr-like smile, and when things go right they have a dutifully pleasant smile which has all the appearance of being I let the willing winter bring his jeweled buds of frost and snow. – Edward Francis Burns. mechanical, and purely a pose. Now I think the really intelligent person is the one who can look as though he realized the significance of various incidents or happenings and who can look sorrowful, even, if the occasion demands it. It is not a pleasant thing The world is unfinished; let’s mold it a bit. – Sam Walter Foss. to suffer mentally or physically, for instance, and have any one come up to you with a smile of patient, sweet condolence. The average man or woman does not want smiles when he or she is uncomfortable. We are apt to remember that it is easy enough to smile when it is somebody else who has the pain. I venture to say that a smile given at the wrong moment is far more Our wishes are presentiments of the capabilities which lie within us and harbingers of that which we shall be in a condition to perform. – Goethe. dangerous to human happiness than the lack of a smile at any given psychological moment. There is a time and a place for all things, even a smile."
No expression of feeling is of much moment without a warm heart and an Do not let us overlook the wayside flowers. – Joe Mitchell Chapple. intelligent thought behind it. The seemingly mechanical, automatic expressions of feeling and of interest in our affairs are sometimes even harder to bear than an out and out attitude of indifference. The thing that really warms and moves us is a touch of heartfelt, intelligent
Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm. – R. L. Stevenson.
When the clouds begin to lower,
That’s a splendid time to smile;
But your smile will lose its power
If you’re smiling all the while.
Now and then a sober season,
Now and then a jolly laugh:
We like best, and there’s a reason,
A good, wholesome half and half.
The wealth of a man is the number of things which he loves and blesses, and by which he is loved and blessed. – Carlyle.
When the other one has trouble,
We should feel that trouble, too,
For, were we with joy to bubble
’Mid his grief, ’t would hardly do.
Let us own that keen discerning
That can see and bear a part;
For the whole wide world is yearning
For a sympathetic