Orison Swett Marden - The Secret of Achievement

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THE SECRET OF ACHIEVEMENT

A BOOK DESIGNED TO TEACH

THAT THE HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENT IS THAT WHICH RESULTS

IN NOBLE MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD; THAT THERE

IS SOMETHING GREATER THAN WEALTH,

GRANDER THAN FAME; THAT

CHARACTER IS THE ONLY SUCCESS

BY

ORISON SWETT MARDEN

AUTHOR OF PUSHING TO THE FRONT

ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS OF EMINENT PERSONS

In lifes small things be resolute and great

To keep thy muscle trained: knowst thou when Fate

Thy measure takes, or when shell say to thee,

I find thee worthy; do this deed far me?

But two ways are offered to our will:

Toil with rare triumph, ease with safe disgrace,

The problem still for us and all of human race.

Table of Contents

Contents

THE ancient Romans placed the busts and statues of heroes in their houses, in order that their children might constantly have illustrious examples before them, and thus learn to imitate the virtues that make men heroic.

The object of this volume is to hold up to youth and those of all ages ideals of noble character, to illustrate the qualities essential to lofty achievement; to stimulate, encourage, and inspire them to be and to do something in the world; to teach them how to acquire practical power, and how to succeed in life.

The young, says Timothy Titcomb, have been preached to, lectured to, taught, exhorted, advised. They have seldom been talked to.

The author has endeavored to talk to his readers; has tried by means of stirring examples to fill them with fresh incentives to earnest, useful living,to spur the sluggish to greater activity. He not only gives stories of men and women who have done something of worth or note, but aims to point out the secret of their achievement; to show the cause and give an analysis of their successes and failures; to explain why such and such a man was great,what special traits led to his success,what ideals inspired him.

The book is intended to show that the secret of every great success has been indomitable resolution and earnest application; to point out how small and mean and common most lives are, in comparison with what they might be.

It teaches youth how to meet life, to dare to live in accordance with a noble creed, assuring them that all things serve a brave soul; and that the world always listens to the man that has a will.

It points out to them how to make stepping-stones of obstacles, and encourages them to believe that they can do what others have done. It aims to give advice in the choice of an occupation or profession; to encourage anyone who feels that he is now the square peg in the round hole, and a comparative failure, to find his place in life, and to show him how he may utilize his talents; to help everyone to find a purpose, and to make his life meet that purpose; to show him that, if he is out of his sphere, he is doomed to perpetual inferiority and disappointment, and must get his living by his weakness instead of by his strength.

The book aims to furnish encouragement and cheer for those who, even late in life, are anxious to make up, by self-instruction, for the deficiency of a neglected education, and to become larger, broader, truer, and nobler men and women.

The volume is written, not so much for geniuses or those who have exceptional opportunities for education and endeavor, as for those who have only every-day opportunities.

With Governor Russell, the book urges the youth to make a living-but to remember that there is one thing better than making a living,making a life.

AMERICA and the NINETEENTH CENTURY! These words, only other names for OPPORTUNITY, are enough to stir every ambitious youth to noble endeavor, and to arouse the sleeping aspirations of the dullest minds.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

JOHN WANAMAKER

WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

JOHN B. GOUGH

JAMES WATT

WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT

COUNT VON MOLTKE

GEORGE WASHINGTON

PETER COOPER

THOMAS CARLYLE

NAPOLEON

ULYSSES S. GRANT

JOHN G. WHITTIER

SAMUEL JOHNSON

DWIGHT L. MOODY

THE SECRET OF ACHIEVEMENT.

There is no real life but cheerful life.ADDISON.

Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones.SOLOMON.

Youth will never live to age, unless they keep themselves in health with exercise, and in heart with joyfulness.PHILIP SIDNEY.

Next to the virtue, the fun in this world is what we can least spare.AGNES STRICKLAND.

I look upon a pure joke with the same veneration that I do upon the Ten Commandments.H. W. SHAW.

A sunny disposition is the very soul of success.MATHEWS.

The two noblest things are sweetness and light.SWIFT.

Cheerful looks make every dish a feast,

And tis that crowns a welcome.MASSINGER.

A merry heart is a continual feast to others besides itself.. BUXTON.

Troubles forereckoned are doubly suffered.BOVEE.

He grieves more than is necessary who grieves before it is necessary.SENECA.

Tis easy enough to be pleasant,

When life flows along like a song;

But the man worthwhile is the one who will smile

When everything goes dead wrong;

For the test of the heart is trouble,

And it always comes with the years;

And the smile that is worth the praise of the earth

Is the smile that comes through tears.

ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.

What is an optimist, father? asked a farmers boy.

Well, John, replied his father, you know I cant give ye the dictionary meanin of that word any moren I can of a great many others. But Ive got a kind of an idee what it means. Probably you dont remember your Uncle Henry; but I guess if there ever was an optimist, he was one. Things was always comin out right with Henry, and especially anything hard that he had to do; it want a-goin to be hard.twas jest kind of solid-pleasant.

Take hoein corn, now. If anything kind of took the tucker out of me twas hoein corn in the hot sun. But in the field, long about the time I begun to lag back a little, Henry, hed look up an say:

Good, Jim! When we get these two rows hoed, an eighteen more, the piecell be half done! An hed say it in such a kind of a cheerful way that I couldnt a ben any more tickled if the piece had been all done,an the rest would go light enough.

But the worst thing we had to dohoein corn was a picnic to itwas pickin stones. No end to that on our old farm, if we wanted to raise anything. When we want hurried and pressed at somethin else, there was always pickin stones to do; and there want a plowin but what brought a fresh crop of stones to the top, an seems as if the pickin all had to be done over again.