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Schreiner, Olive, 1855-1920

"The Story of an African Farm, a novel"

I like to see it all; I
feel it run through me--that life belongs to me; it makes my little life
larger, it breaks down the narrow walls that shut me in."
She sighed, and drew a long breath.
"Have you made any plans?" she asked him presently.
"Yes," he said, the words coming in jets, with pauses between; "I will take
the grey mare--I will travel first--I will see the world--then I will find
work."
"What work?"
"I do not know."
She made a little impatient movement.
"That is no plan; travel--see the world--find work! If you go into the
world aimless, without a definite object, dreaming--dreaming, you will be
definitely defeated, bamboozled, knocked this way and that. In the end you
will stand with your beautiful life all spent, and nothing to show. They
talk of genius--it is nothing but this, that a man knows what he can do
best, and does it, and nothing else. Waldo," she said, knitting her little
fingers closer among his, "I wish I could help you; I wish I could make you
see that you must decide what you will be and do. It does not matter what
you choose--be a farmer, businessman, artist, what you will--but know your
aim, and live for that one thing. We have only one life. The secret of
success is concentration; wherever there has been a great life, or a great
work, that has gone before.


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