Stand firm like a rock, against which though the waves batter, yet it stands unmoved, and they fall to rest at last. How unfortunate has this accident made me, cries such an one! Not at all! He should rather say, What a happy mortal am I for being unconcerned upon this occasion! For being neither crushed by the present, nor afraid of what is to come.

 

 Marcus Aurelius

 

 

 

Pay as little attention to discouragements as possible. Plough ahead as a steamer does, rough or smooth—rain or shine. To carry your cargo and make your port is the point.

 

 Maltbie D. Babcock

 

 

 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock,

‘Tis of the wave and not the rock;

‘Tis but the flapping of the sail,

And not a rent made by the gale!

In spite of rock and tempest’s roar,

In spite of false lights on the shore,

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!

 

 H. W. Longfellow

 

 

 

Better a day of strife

Than a century of sleep.

 

 Father Ryan

I reread the other day that heart-breaking book, the “Life of Scott.” One should read such works now and then, but, oh, not often. As I live, I feel more and more that literature should be cheerful and brave-spirited, even if it cannot be made beautiful and pious and heroic. . . . The Bible in most parts is a cheerful book; it is our little piping theologies, tracts, and sermons that are dull and dowie.

 

Robert Louis Stevenson

 

 

 

It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and forsees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.

 

 C. C. Colton

 

 

 

Oh, the rain and the sun, and the sun and the rain!

When the tempest is done, then the sunshine again;

And in rapture we’ll ride through the stormiest gales,

For God’s hand’s on the helm, and His breath in the sails.

Then murmur no more,

In lull or in roar,

But smile and be brave till the voyage is o’er

 

 James Whitcomb Riley