Character Is Itself A Fortune.

It Is The Close Observation Of Little Things Which Is The Secret Of Success In Business, In Art, In Science, And In Every Pursuit In Life. Human Knowledge Is But An Accumulation Of Small Facts Made By Successive Generations Of Men--the Little Bits Of Knowledge And Experience Carefully Treasured Up By Them Growing At Length Into A Mighty Pyramid.

Even Happiness Itself May Become Habitual. There Is A Habit Of Looking At The Bright Side Of Things, And Also Of Looking At The Dark Side.

A Great Deal Of What Passes By The Name Of Patriotism In These Days Consists Of The Merest Bigotry And Narrow-mindedness; Exhibiting Itself In National Prejudice, National Conceit, And National Hatred. It Does Not Show Itself In Deeds, But In Boastings--in Howlings, Gesticulations, And Shrieking Helplessly For Help--in Flying Flags And Singing Songs--and In Perpetual Grinding At The Hurdy-gurdy Of Long-dead Grievances And Long-remedied Wrongs. To Be Infested By Such A Patriotism As This Is Perhaps Among The Greatest Curses That Can Befall Any Country.

The Healthy Spirit Of Self-help Created Among Working People Would, More Than Any Other Measure, Serve To Raise Them As A Class; And This, Not By Pulling Down Others, But By Levelling Them Up To A Higher And Still Advancing Standard Of Religion, Intelligence, And Virtue.

Experience Serves To Prove That The Worth And Strength Of A State Depend Far Less Upon The Form Of Its Institutions Than Upon The Character Of Its Men; For The Nation Is Only The Aggregate Of Individual Conditions, And Civilization Itself Is But A Question Of Personal, Improvement.