The Choice of Hercules

Editor’s Note: This excerpt appeared in Jan. 9, 2016 on AOM From the Memorabilia By Xenophon, c. 371 B.C.When Hercules was in that part of his youth in which it was natural for him to consider what course of life he ought to pursue, he one day retired into a desert, where the silence and …

Quote To Ponder ~John Webster

“The chiefest action for a man of great spirit is never to be out of action...the soul was never put into the body to stand still.” ~John Webster

Ben Franklin’s Maxims on Industry

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man heathy, wealthy and wise. Diligence is the mother of good luck. God helps them that help themselves. At the working man’s house hunger looks in, but dares not enter. For industry pays debts, while despair increaseth them. By diligence and patience the mouse ate in …

The Worth Of Each Day

From Moral Letters to Lucilius, 65 A.D. By Seneca Continue to act thus, my dear Lucilius - set yourself free for your own sake; gather and save your time, which ‘til lately has been forced from you, or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands. Make yourself believe the truth of my words …

Quote To Ponder ~Calvin Coolidge

“Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.” ~Calvin Coolidge

The Strenuous Life

Excerpt from The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses, 1902 By Theodore RooseveltI wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy …

Quote To Ponder ~Samuel Smiles

“The idle pass through life leaving as little trace of their existence as foam upon water or smoke upon air; whereas the industrious stamp their character upon their age, and influence not only their own but all succeeding generations.” ~Samuel Smiles

Quote To Ponder ~Henry David Thoreau

“It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?” ~Henry David Thoreau

We Do Not Labor That We May Be Idle

From Nicomachean Ethics, c. 350 B.C. By Aristotle We do not labor that we may be idle; but, as Anarchis justly said, we are idle that we may labor with more effect; that is, we have recourse to sports and amusements as refreshing cordials after contentious exertions, that, having reposed in such diversions for a …

Quote To Ponder ~William F. Buckley Jr.

"Industry is the enemy of melancholy." ~William F. Buckley Jr.