Let us be like a bird, a moment lighted

Upon a twig that swings;

He feels it sway, but sings on unaffrighted,

Knowing he hath his wings

 

 Victor Hugo

 

 

 

 

 

Have no “can’ts” in your mind. I can’t is a fatal thought. Have only ideas and reveries of I can! You shall accomplish anything you persistently set your forces upon. You have within you the faculty for advance in any direction. Just commence. Desire is the proof of ability to achieve. Doubt neither yourself, not any one else.

 

 Ida Gathing Pentecost

 

 

 

 

 

Fore he said, “Fight on! fight on!”

Tho’ his vessel was all but a wreck;

And it chanced that, when half of the short summer night was gone,

With a grisly wound to be drest he had left the deck,

But a bullet struck him that was dressing it suddenly dead,

And himself he was wounded again in the side and the head,

And he said, “fight on! fight on!”

 

 Alfred Tennyson

Each individual stands alone, and must climb the Hill of Difficulty with the sole aid of his own staff.

 

 Jeanne G. Pennington

 

 

 

 

 

When you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely set a naught, and you smile, with your heart a rest, that is victory. When your good is evil spoken of, your wishes are crossed, your taste is offended, your advice ridiculed, and you take it all in patient, loving silence, that is victory. When you are content with simple raiment, plain food, any climate, any solitude, any interruption—that is victory.

 

 Anon

 

 

 

 

 

Self-consciousness is at the root of every cowardice. To think about one’s self is death to real thought about any noble thing.

 

 Phillips Brooks

 

 

 

 

There is more heroism in self-denial than in deeds of arms.

 

 Seneca