When the prizes of life shall be awarded by the Supreme Judge, who knows our weaknesses and frailties, the distance we have run, the weights we have carried, the handicaps, will all be taken into account. Not the distance we have run, but the obstacles we have overcome, the disadvantages under which we have made the race, will decide the prizes. The poor wretch who has plodded along against unknown temptations, the poor woman who has buried her sorrows in her silent heart and sewed her weary way through life, those who have suffered abuse in silence, and who have been unrecognized or despised by their fellow-runners, will often receive the greater prize.
"The wise and active conquer difficulties, By daring to attempt them: sloth and folly Shiver and sink at sight of toil and hazard, And make the impossibility they fear."
Tumble me down, and I will sit Upon my ruins, smiling yet: Tear me to tatters, yet I'll be Patient in my necessity: Laugh at my scraps of clothes, and shun Me as a fear'd infection: Yet scare-crow like I'll walk, as one Neglecting thy derision. ROBERT HERRICK.
"One ruddy drop of manly blood the surging sea outweighs."
The truest test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops; no, but the kind of man the country turns out.--EMERSON.
Hew the block off, and get out the man.--POPE.
Eternity alone will reveal to the human race its debt of gratitude to the peerless and immortal name of Washington.--JAMES A. GARFIELD.
Better not be at all Than not be noble. TENNYSON.
Be noble! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. LOWELL.
Virtue alone out-builds the pyramids: Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall. YOUNG.
Were one so tall to touch the pole, Or grasp creation in his span, He must be measured by his soul, The mind's the measure of the man. WATTS.
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. BAILEY.
"Good name in man or woman Is the immediate jewel of their souls."
But this one thing I know, that these qualities did not now begin to exist, cannot be sick with my sickness, nor buried in my grave.--EMERSON.