"It is wonderful how even the casualties of life seem to bow to a spirit that will not bow to them, and yield to subserve a design which they may, in their first apparent tendency, threaten to frustrate. When a firm, decisive spirit is recognized, it is curious to see how the space clears around a man and leaves him room and freedom."--_John Foster._ "The great thing about General Grant is cool persistency of purpose. He is not easily excited, and he has got the grip of a bulldog. When he once gets his teeth in, nothing can shake him off."--_Abraham Lincoln._ "I am bigger than anything that can happen to me. All these things are outside my door, _and I've got the key_. * * * Man was meant to be, and ought to be, stronger and more than anything that can happen to him. Circumstances, 'Fate,' 'Luck,' are all outside; and if he cannot change them, he can always _beat_ them."--_Charles F. Lummis._ "The truest wisdom is a resolute determination." "Impossible is a word found only in the dictionary of fools." "Circumstances! I _make_ circumstances!"--_Napoleon._ "He who fails only half wills."--_Suwarrow._ "That which the easiest becomes a habit in us is the will. Learn, then, to will strongly and decisively; thus fix your floating life, and leave it no longer to be carried hither and thither, like a withered leaf, by every wind that blows." "Man owes his growth chiefly to that active striving of the will,--that encounter which we call effort,--and it is astonishing to find how often results apparently impracticable are thus made possible. * * * It is will--force of purpose--that enables a man to do or be whatever he sets his mind upon being or doing." "A strong, defiant purpose is many-handed and lays hold of whatever is near that can serve it; it has a magnetic purpose that draws to itself whatever is kindred. * * * Let it be your first study to teach the world that you are not wood and straw; that there is some iron in you."--_Munger._ "It's _dogged_ as does it."--_Yorkshire Proverb._ "One talent with a will behind it will accomplish more than ten without it, as a thimbleful of powder in a rifle, the bore of whose barrel will give it direction, will do greater execution than a carload burned in the open air."--_O.S. Marden._ "Will may not endow man with talents or capacities; but it does one very important matter--it enables him to make the best, the very best, of his powers."--_Fothergill._ "Tender-handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you for your pains. Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as down remains." "Don't flinch; don't foul; but hit the line hard."--_Roosevelt._ "The more difficulties one has to encounter, within and without, the more significant and the higher in inspiration his life will be." * * * * * Transcriber's note: