5 Inspirations – II
Be the best of whatever you are
If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley – but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill ;
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.
If you can’t be a bush, be a bit of the grass,
Some highway happier make ;
If you can’t be a muskie, then just be a bass -
But the liveliest bass in the lake !
We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew,
There’s something for all of us here,
There’s big work to do, and there’s lesser to do,
And the task we must do is the near.
If you can’t be a highway, then just be a trail,
If you can’t be the sun, be a star ;
It isn’t by size that you win or fail -
Be the best of whatever you are !
- Douglas Malloch
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Success
Success is speaking words of praise,
In cheering other people’s ways,
In doing just the best you can,
With every task and every plan,
It’s silence when your speech would hurt,
Politeness when your neighbor’s curt,
It’s deafness when the scandal flows,
And sympathy with others’ woes,
It’s loyalty when duty calls,
It’s courage when disaster falls,
It’s patience when the hours are long,
It’s found in laughter and in song,
It is not what the world gives me
In honor, praise or gold ;
It is what I do give the world,
So others do unfold.
If by my work through life I can
Another soul unfold,
Then I have done what cannot be
Made good, by praise or gold.
One tiny thought in tiny word
May give a great one birth,
And, if that thought was caused by me,
I lived a life of worth.
- Richard F. Wolf
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It’s Difficult but…..
It’s difficult… but rewarding…
To believe when others are doubting.
To work when others are dreaming.
To care when others are neglecting.
To give when others are grasping.
To forgive when others are condemning.
To smile when others are complaining.
To praise when others are criticizing.
To build when others are destroying.
To risk when others are hesitating.
To serve when others are demanding.
To persist when others are quitting.
- William Arthur Ward
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What is good ?
“What is the real good ?”
I asked in musing mood.
Order, said the law court ;
Knowledge, said the school ;
Truth, said the wise man ;
Pleasure, said the fool ;
Love, said the maiden ;
Beauty, said the page ;
Freedom, said the dreamer ;
Home, said the sage ;
Fame, said the soldier ;
Equity, said the seer ;
Spoken my heart full sadly,
“The answer is not here.”
Then, within my bosom
Softly this I heard :
“Each heart holds the secret ;
Kindness is the word.”
- John Boyle O’Reilly
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Myself
I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know,
I want to be able, as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye ;
I don’t want to stand, with the setting sun,
And hate myself for things I have done.
I don’t want to keep on a closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself, as I come and go,
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of a man I really am ;
I don’t want to dress up myself in sham.
I want to go out with my head erect,
I want to deserve all men’s respect ;
But here in the struggle for fame and pelf
I want to be able to like myself.
I don’t want to look at myself and know
That I’m bluster and bluff and empty show.
I can never hide myself from me ;
I see what others may never see ;
I know what others may never know ;
I never can fool myself, and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.
- Edgar A. Guest
Related Reading:
» Inspiring Quotes – I
» Inspiring Quotes – II
» Inspiring Quotes – III
» 5 Inspirations – I
» 5 Inspirations – III