CHAPTER XVIII

CONDENSED PARAGRAPHS

In the case of a sermon, the minister selects a text and expounds from it for an hour, more or less, until nothing is left unexposed. A certain famous French author had the habit of doing the reverse, first writing the sermon and then gradually trimming it down by cutting out all the non-essential parts until only a pithy paragraph remained. Proverbs, maxims, and other sayings are usually understood without much difficulty, but sometimes they prove, like condensed air and pellets of food, rather rich for ordinary consumption, and have to be diluted.

The English class was given exercises in amplifying and abstracting, and it was interesting to observe the different results obtained, largely depending on the power of the imagination. The Naturalist tried a few proverbs and maxims himself, just expressing clearly in as few words as possible whatever thought happened to come to him on a given subject; as, for example:

The tree gathers strength in time of sunshine to withstand the storm.

There is one sure road to beauty: Be good.

Strength transcends weakness in lack of effort. We cannot influence others for good unless we love them.

The best way to get along with a woman, either male or female, is to agree with her.

Leaving umbrellas around promiscuously is a sure sign of a generous disposition.

More people love each other in a church choir than in any other form.

A tree grows higher than a shrub because it has only one trunk.

Anger is like an explosion on a battleship; if you injure and lose control of yourself, the enemy wins the fight.

Men's dispositions vary like their watches.

People who use the most bluff sometimes allow it to blind them to the bluffs of others; as a ship is blinded by her own smoke screen.

Genius is an incessant inward urge toward a cer

tain kind of work, which makes one like it and keep at it.

Work and success bring happiness.

Trust your buggy or your girl with your best friend, but never trust them both.

ers.

All men are unreliable sometimes, except print

The idler is twice a criminal; he wastes his own time and makes others waste theirs.

George Washington could not tell a lie; which is proof positive that he was never in the real estate or automobile business.

The way of the reformer is hard-so hard that he often becomes discouraged and disgusted and needs reforming himself.

A bad habit is better broken than kept.

Cultivating a voice is like raising potatoes: one has to do a lot of working, weeding, enriching, watering, and spraying; but he starts with a mere fragment and rolls out a dozen good round ones at the end of the season.

It is much easier to keep out of trouble than to get out.

The Goddess Success steps down from her throne to welcome and crown the optimist; but the pessimist never even gets in sight of her and would not recognize her if he did.

It is our usual everyday experience that idle moments are not happy ones.

The present and the future are tied back to the past.

A life or a job becomes harder and more complex with years because the past enters in and makes its demands.

Youth is the season for accomplishment, even though experience and judgment are lacking. When a man has attained success, his real and enforced obligations to others leave him little time for anything else.

The man who lacks confidence in the honesty and ability of his associates is surely piling up for himself a lot of trouble.

Self-esteem is a big factor in happiness, and it depends on how far we make good our pretensions.

There is no other tonic so powerful as the confident expectation of success.

He who has no darling work misses one of the deepest joys of life.

Men may be measured by the way they accept disappointment.

While there's change there's hope.

Better be a pin-point than a pin-head: but why be either?

Some people earn the right to be annoying, while others assume it.

Rough manners often hide warm hearts; just as rocky streams sometimes yield good fishing.

Mountains get larger, great men smaller, as we approach them.

Beauty without wisdom is like a flower without fragrance.

Perfume does not make the man.

Habitual deceivers never fool anybody but themselves.

Things are not necessarily the same because they came in the same box.

Be good and you are already great; stay so, and you will be a hero.