"Strike!" said Diogenes; "you
will not find a stick hard enough to conquer my perseverance."
Antisthenes, overcome, had not another word to say, but forthwith
accepted him as his pupil.
Energy of temperament, with a moderate degree of wisdom, will
carry a man further than any amount of intellect without it.
Energy makes the man of practical ability. It gives him VIS,
force, MOMENTUM. It is the active motive power of character;
and if combined with sagacity and self-possession, will
enable a man to employ his powers to the best advantage
in all the affairs of life.
Hence it is that, inspired by energy of purpose, men of
comparatively mediocre powers have often been enabled to
accomplish such extraordinary results. For the men who have most
powerfully influenced the world have not been so much men of
genius as men of strong convictions and enduring capacity for
work, impelled by irresistible energy and invincible
determination: such men, for example, as were Mahomet, Luther,
Knox, Calvin, Loyola, and Wesley.
Courage, combined with energy and perseverance, will overcome
difficulties apparently insurmountable. It gives force and
impulse to effort, and does not permit it to retreat. Tyndall
said of Faraday, that "in his warm moments he formed a resolution,
and in his cool ones he made that resolution good." Perseverance,
working in the right direction, grows with time, and when steadily
practised, even by the most humble, will rarely fail of its
reward.
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