Thus your profound understanding that effectiveness is what counts
will cut out every questionable habit, every association of idleness
and sloth. No social club for you; that institution is for the man of
dollars and of Greek. No evenings with gay parties for you; you must
use those precious hours for reading, planning, sleep.
You cannot dally with brilliant indirectness; you must make every man
and woman understand that you are goldenly sincere, forcefully
earnest, earnestly honest, high of intention, sound of purpose, direct
of method. Out of all these you will finally wring everything which
the college is designed to give: skilled intellect, mind equipped with
systematized knowledge, simple, earnest, upright character.
And to crown it all, you will discover in this hard discipline of your
faculties and of your soul a happiness whose steady felicity is
unknown to the lounger of the club or the frequenter of the ballroom.
For remember this--you who in your heart cherish a secret envy of
those other young men whom you believe, by reason of family, wealth,
or any favorable circumstance, are getting more of the joy of living
than you get--remember this, that this world knows only one higher
degree of happiness than that which comes from discipline, only one
pleasure nobler than the pleasure of achieving.
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