This power of reserve involves silence. Talk
all you please, but keep your large conceptions to yourself till the
hour to strike arrives, and then strike with all your might.
In politics they call some men "rubber shoes"; such men continue long,
but they never achieve highly. Do not try to cultivate this quality if
Nature has been so kind as not to endow you with it. It is not a
masterful quality. Have the courage not only of your convictions--that
is not so hard--but _have the courage of your conceptions_. But do not
simulate courage if you have it not. False courage is worse than
cowardice--it is falsehood and cowardice combined.
Reserve also includes the power to wait; and that is almost as crucial
a test of greatness as courage itself. Many a battle has been lost by
over-eagerness. There was the greatness of Fate itself in the order of
the American officer of the Revolution who said, "Wait, men, until you
see the whites of their eyes."
Time is a young man's greatest ally. That is why youth holds the
whip-hand of the world. That is why youth can afford to dare. It is
also why age does not dare to dare. With youth, to-morrow is merely an
accession of power; but with age--ah, well, with age, as Omar says,
"To-morrow I may be
Myself with yesterday's seven thousand years.
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