The greatest Characters in every community are the Mothers. The greatest community is that which honors its Mothers most. The greatest men in any community are those who render the highest tribute to Motherhood.
No one ever has Surpassed or ever will Surpass the achievement of a Woman when she becomes a Mother.
When did you last write to your Mother? If she has gone from you, how often do you think of her? Do you realize that all you are or ever hope to be, started back into the years when your Mother, her whole being pulsating with Pride, held you tight, and with eyes lustered and watered with Love, watched your very Breath, and kept pace, over the hours, with your faintest Heart Throbs? Think of how, all through those days she wrapped you in her Unselfishness and her Sacrifices.
The measure of your Success will be the degree of Honor you pay to your Mother and to Motherhood.
How many indelicate stories would you tell if your Mother could always be present? How many mean and unjust affairs would you bring to pass if you had the eyes of your Mother looking on? Never mind about the “Apron Strings.” There always comes a time when there are no “Apron Strings” to be tied to. And then you will long for them to come back.
If ever Failure begins to press; if ever Friends begin to fade away; if ever the grand figure of your Will shall begin to bow its Power — do this — think of your Mother and live up to her ideals of you.
Kiss your Mother as you go into the fight of this day. And at its close fill her furrowed forehead with your Smiles. Ease her Cares. Write to her though business go to Smash. Go and see her often though it takes you across the Globe. Let her Living Presence keep you Courageous. And if she has gone from you let her Memory Guide and Inspire you as once you Guided and Inspired her Faith.
Salt
Stir up your Salt.
For Salt — translated into terms of moral use — is the stuff that seasons and balances one’s work — keeps it from swaying into mediocrity, commonness and nothingness — it’s Grit, Courage, Back-bone, refined to the crystal degree. That’s Salt!
Stir up your Salt.
A man without Salt in his system is about as active a thing as a watch without works. Neither one goes.
Stir up your Salt.
The blood and body of a man is saturated with Salt. When a man’s Salt runs out the man runs out.
Stir up your Salt.
Salt is the thing that savors Mankind.
Stir up your Salt.
You are worth your Salt if you have worth to add to your Salt. Salt has no value alone. Salt is a partner ingredient. It’s a complement to what you already have to mix with it.
Stir up your Salt.
Salt is at once the commonest and rarest thing in all the world. It’s nowhere — yet almost everywhere. But it’s yours to take and use. Salt in your work is evenness of Effort, solidness of Purpose and assuredness of Faith in Results — Hope for better things — Courage for bigger tasks. As you work through the minutes and the hours, keep it firmly in mind that Success must needs have its share of Salt.
Stir up your Salt.
Habit
Habit is a fixed series of acts. Do a thing once and Tracks are marked. Do a thing twice and a Route is mapped. Do a thing thrice and a Path is blazed.
Do the Right thing over and over again.
From the unconscious wink of the eye to the smooth, unnoticed movements of a million worlds, the law of Habit relentlessly rules its course. All life is but a set of Habits.
Do the Right thing over and over again.
The Pennies saved to-day make the Nickels in the bank to-morrow. The Nickels in the bank to-morrow spell the Dollars in the bank next year. The Dollars saved, crystallize into the Fortune after the years! Habit either makes or breaks — either leads you up or drags you down.
Do the Right thing over and over again.
If you are Prompt to-day you will want to be Prompt to-morrow. If you are Square once you will surely seek to be Square again. The fight for a thing Worth While right now cannot help but ease the fight for the thing Worth While later on. It is the law of Habit. And Habit creeps on from the minutest Action repeated over and over again.
Do the Right thing over and over again.
Grow Great off of Habit! There is no other way. Start what you do start — Right. Or else begin all over again. You can fondle the eggs of a Python but you can’t play with the Python. You can break the bad habit to-day, but if you wait until to-morrow the bad Habit will break you.
Do the Right thing over and over again.
Chapter 1 — Thought and Character
The aphorism, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he,” not only embraces the whole of a man’s being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
As the plant springs from, and could not be without, the seed, so every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought, and could not have appeared without them. This applies equally to those acts called “spontaneous” and “unpremeditated” as to those, which are deliberately executed.
Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.
Thought in the mind hath made us, What we are
By thought was wrought and built. If a man’s mind
Hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes
The wheel the ox behind...
...If one endure
In purity of thought, joy follows him
As his own shadow — sure.
Man is a growth by law, and not a creation by artifice, and cause and effect is as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things. A noble and Godlike character is not a thing of favor or chance, but is the natural result of continued effort in right thinking, the effect of long-cherished association with Godlike thoughts. An ignoble and bestial character, by the same process, is the result of the continued harboring of groveling thoughts.
Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace. By the right choice and true application of thought, man ascends to the Divine Perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beast. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character, and man is their maker and master.
Of all the beautiful truths pertaining to the soul which have been restored and brought to light in this age, none is more gladdening or fruitful of divine promise and confidence than this — that man is the master of thought, the molder of character, and the maker and shaper of condition, environment, and destiny.
As a being of Power, Intelligence, and Love, and the lord of his own thoughts, man holds the key to every situation, and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which he may make himself what he wills.
Man