No man can
ultimately fail who has kept himself alive, and therefore kept himself
growing. If you find that you have ceased to grow, start up the
process again. Make yourself take an interest in large and
constructive things of the present moment in your city, county, state,
and country, and in the world.
The mind and character of man are the two great exceptions to the
entire constitution of the universe. Decay is the law that controls
everything else except these; but thought and character need never
decay. They may be kept growing as long as life endures. Who shall
deny that the philosophers of India are right, and that mind and
character may continue to grow throughout illimitable series of
existences?
Only two classes of men are hopeless: those who think to prevail by
fraud and the contrivances of indirection, and those whose minds and
characters have begun to disintegrate, or degenerate, if you like the
latter word better. There is every reason why character should each
day get a truer bearing, why the mind each day should become more
luminous, elevated, and accurate.
The Stoics said that even temperament might be given steadiness and
poise by an exercise of philosophy and will, and the lives of many of
them seemed to prove it.
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