Either you think — or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.
Category: self-improvement
The haves and have-nots
The real “haves” are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real “have nots” are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.
Being successful in America
If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs.
No substitute for work
There is no substitute under the heavens for productive labor. It is the process by which dreams become realities. It is the process by which idle visions become dynamic achievements.
How to earn dignity
Dignity does not float down from heaven it cannot be purchased nor manufactured. It is a reward reserved for those who labor with diligence.
The basis for advancement
Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that today is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise, and new activity.
I checked my privilege, and it’s just fine
The plain fact is that what [liberals] understand to be ’privilege’ is really just what regular people understand is a ‘consequence.’ It is a consequence of hard work, of delaying gratification, and of sacrifice. No one came and bestowed this country upon us. We built it. Some of us died doing so. If we have privilege, it was earned at Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, and Normandy. It’s not a function of skin tone or the number of vowels in your name; it’s a function of character.
Continue reading “I checked my privilege, and it’s just fine”
Natural progress
The uniform, constant, and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition … is frequently powerful enough to maintain the natural progress of things toward improvement, in spite of the extravagance of government, and of the greatest errors of administration.
The tragedy of the poor
The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations.