"Allen, James - As a Man Thinketh" - читать интересную книгу автора (Allen James)

worldly success will be by the measure that he sacrifices his confused
animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and
the strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance. The higher his
he lifts his thoughts, the greater will be his success, the more blessed
and enduring will be his achievements.
The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious...
although on the mere surface it sometimes may appear to do so. It helps
the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous. All the great teachers of the
ages have declared this in varying ways, and to prove it and to know it
a man has but to persist in making himself increasingly virtuous by lifting
his thoughts.
Intellectual achievements are the result of thought consecrated to the
search for knowledge or for the beautiful and true in nature. Such
achievements may sometimes be connected with vanity and ambition, but they
are not the outcome of those characteristics. They are the natural
outgrowth of long and arduous effort, and of pure and unselfish thoughts.
Spiritual achievements are the consummation of holy aspirations. He
who lives constantly in the conception of noble and lofty thoughts, who
dwells upon all that is pure and selfless, will, as surely as the sun
reaches its zenith and the moon its full, become wise and noble in
character and rise into a position of influence and blessedness.
Achievement of any kind is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought.
By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and
well-directed thought a man ascends. By the aid of animality, indolence,
impurity, corruption, and confusion of thought a man descends.
A may may rise to high success in the world, even to lofty attitudes
in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness and wretchedness
by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts to take possession
of him.
Victories attained by right thought can be maintained only by
watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall
back into failure.
All achievements, whether in the business, intellectual, or spiritual
world, are the result of definitely directed thought, are governed by
the same law, and are of the same method. The only difference is in
the object of attainment.
He who would accomplish little need sacrifice little; he would would
achieve much must sacrifice much. He who would attain highly must
sacrifice greatly.


VISIONS AND IDEALS


The dreamers are the saviors of the world. As the visible world is
sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and
sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary
dreamers. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers; it cannot let their ideals
fade and die; it lives in them; it knows them as the realities which it
shall one day see and know.