Love, Life & Work: Being a Book of Opinions Reasonably Good-Natured Concerning How to Attain the Highest Happiness for One's Self with the Least Possible Harm to OthersHubbard, Elbert
Religion
Love, Life & Work: Being a Book of Opinions Reasonably Good-Natured Concerning How to Attain the Highest Happiness for One's Self with the Least Possible Harm to Others
Hubbard, Elbert
Conduct of life; Happiness
The man who quits in disgust when ordered to perform a task which he
considers menial or unjust may be a pretty good fellow, but in the wrong
environment, but the malcontent who takes your order with a smile and
then secretly disobeys, is a dangerous proposition. To pretend to obey,
and yet carry in your heart the spirit of revolt is to do half-hearted,
slipshod work. If revolt and obedience are equal in power, your engine
will then stop on the center and you benefit no one, not even yourself.
The spirit of obedience is the controlling impulse that dominates the
receptive mind and the hospitable heart. There are boats that mind the
helm and there are boats that do not. Those that do not, get holes
knocked in them sooner or later.
To keep off the rocks, obey the rudder.
Obedience is not to slavishly obey this man or that, but it is that
cheerful mental state which responds to the necessity of the case, and
does the thing without any back talk--unuttered or expressed.
Obedience to the institution--loyalty! The man who has not learned to
obey has trouble ahead of him every step of the way. The world has it in
for him continually, because he has it in for the world.
The man who does not know how to receive orders is not fit to issue them
to others. But the individual who knows how to execute the orders given
him is preparing the way to issue orders, and better still--to have
them obeyed.
Society's Saviors
All adown the ages society has made the mistake of nailing its Saviors
to the cross between thieves.
That is to say, society has recognized in the Savior a very dangerous
quality--something about him akin to a thief, and his career has been
suddenly cut short.
We have telephones and trolly cars, yet we have not traveled far into
the realm of spirit, and our X-ray has given us no insight into the
heart of things.
Society is so dull and dense, so lacking in spiritual vision, so dumb
and so beast-like that it does not know the difference between a thief
and the only Begotten Son. In a frantic effort to forget its hollowness
it takes to ping-pong, parchesi and progressive euchre, and seeks to
lose itself and find solace and consolation in tiddle-dy-winks.
We are told in glaring head-lines and accurate photographic
reproductions of a conference held by leaders in society to settle a
matter of grave import. Was it to build technical schools and provide a
means for practical and useful education? Was it a plan of building
modern tenement houses along scientific and sanitary lines? Was it
called to provide funds for scientific research of various kinds that
would add to human knowledge and prove a benefit to mankind? No, it was
none of these. This body met to determine whether the crook in a certain
bulldog's tail was natural or had been produced artificially.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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