GREATNESS
is only attained by the constant thinking of great thoughts. No man can become
great in outward personality until he is great internally; and no man can be
great internally until he THINKS. No amount of education, reading, or study can
make you great without thought; but thought can make you great with very little
study. There are altogether too many people who are trying to make something of
themselves, by reading books without thinking; all such will fail. You are not
mentally developed by what you read, but by what you think about what you read.
Thinking
is the hardest and most exhausting of all labor; and hence many people shrink
from it. God has so formed us that we are continuously impelled to thought; we
must either think or engage in some activity to escape thought. The headlong,
continuous chase for pleasure in which most people spend all their leisure time
is only an effort to escape thought. If they are alone, or if they have nothing
amusing to take their attention, as a novel to read or a show to see, they must
think; and to escape from thinking they resort to novels, shows, and all the
endless devices of the purveyors of amusement. Most people spend the greater
part of their leisure time running away from thought, hence they are where they
are. We never move forward until we begin to think.
Read less
and think more. Read about great things and think about great questions and
issues. We have at the present time few really great figures in the political
life of our country; our politicians are a petty lot. There is no Lincoln, no
Webster, no Clay, Calhoun, or Jackson. Why? Because our present statesmen deal
only with sordid and petty issues - questions of dollars and cents, of
expediency and party success, of material prosperity without regard to ethical
right. Thinking along these lines does not call forth great souls. The
statesmen of Lincoln’s
time and previous times dealt with questions of eternal truth, of human rights
and justice. Men thought upon great themes; they thought great thoughts, and
they became great men.
Thinking,
not mere knowledge or information, makes personality. Thinking is growth; you
cannot think without growing.
Every
thought engenders another thought. Write one idea and others will follow until
you have written a page. You cannot fathom your own mind; it has neither bottom
nor boundaries. Your first thoughts may be crude; but as you go on thinking you
will use more and more of yourself; you will quicken new brain cells into
activity and you will develop new faculties. Heredity, environment,
circumstances, all things must give way before you if you practice sustained
and continuous thought. But, on the other hand, if you neglect to think for
yourself and only use other people’s thought, you will never know what you are
capable of; and you will end by being incapable of anything.
There can
be no real greatness without original thought. All that a man does outwardly is
the expression and completion of his inward thinking. No action is possible
without thought, and no great action is possible until a great thought has
preceded it. Action is the second form of thought, and personality is the
materialization of thought. Environment is the result of thought; things group
themselves or arrange themselves around you according to your thought. There
is, as Emerson says, some central idea or conception of yourself by which all
the facts of your life are arranged and classified. Change this central idea
and you change the arrangement or classification of all the facts and
circumstances of your life.
You are
what you are because you think as you do; you are where you are because you
think as you do.
You see
then the immense importance of thinking about the great essentials set forth in
the preceding chapters. You must not accept them in any superficial way; you
must think about them until they are a part of your central idea. Go back to
the matter of the point of view and consider, in all its bearings, the
tremendous thought that you live in a perfect world among perfect people, and
that nothing can possibly be wrong with you but your own personal attitude.
Think about all this until you fully realize all that it means to you.
Consider
that this is God’s world and that it is the best of all possible worlds; that
he has brought it thus far toward completion by the processes of organic,
social, and industrial evolution, and that it is going on to greater
completeness and harmony. Consider that there is one great, perfect,
intelligent Principle of Life and Power, causing all the changing phenomena of
the cosmos. Think about all this until you see that it is true, and until you
comprehend how you should live and act as a citizen of such a perfect whole.
Next,
think of the wonderful truth that this great Intelligence is in you; it is your
own intelligence. It is an Inner Light impelling you toward the right thing and
the best thing, the greatest act, and the highest happiness. It is a Principle
of Power in you, giving you all the ability and genius there is. It will
infallibly guide you to the best if you will submit to it and walk in the
light. Consider what is meant by your consecration of yourself when you say: “I
will obey my soul.” This is a sentence of tremendous meaning; it must
revolutionize the attitude and behavior of the average person.
Then
think of your identification with this Great Supreme; that all its knowledge is
yours, and all its wisdom is yours, for the asking. You are a god if you think
like a god. If you think like a god you cannot fail to act like a god. Divine
thoughts will surely externalize themselves in a divine life. Thoughts of power
will end in a life of power. Great thoughts will manifest in a great
personality.