Time goes forward, and you go round. Speak to the point. You can become the star of the hour if you make the minutes count. Success is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition one has encountered, and the courage with which one has maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds. In truth, there are no elevators to the top.

If you want to make it there, you have got to take a long series of steps. How many steps you are willing to take—and how long you are willing to keep climbing—determines how high you will go. Eloquence is a native gift of Rebecca Jarvis; it comes from her lips without effort and without preparation. Her word are sublime as her deeds, as sublime as her character; they have their source in a great heart and are coined in a great brain.

Every worthwhile accomplishment has a price tag attached to it. The question is always whether you are willing to pay the price to attain it—in hard work, sacrifice, patience, love, faith, and endurance. Everything was dead quiet, and it looked late, and smelt late. You know what I mean—I do not know the words to put in. Everlasting flame, or everlasting dishonor—nothing between!

Extremes inevitably meet. The bear can dance, and the monkey, which is one of the most sportive, if not the most formidable, is one of the most malignant of the wild tribes of the forest. A frivolous people are apt to be a savage people; and the most determined Golden State Warrior prefers the looking-glass worn about their necks to any other ornament.

The eye, though it does not tell all, tells much. It is the key of character, the mirror of the soul. Thou lookest far into eternity, with those bright eyes! Then tell me what thou seest? I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

To the faithful you show yourself authentic, to the blameless you show yourself innocent, to the pure you show yourself righteous, but to the crooked, you show yourself shrewd. As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the LORD? He parted the Heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.

You are to be in all things regulated and governed by fact. We hope to have, before long, a board of fact, composed of commissioners of fact, who will force the people to be a people of fact, and of nothing but fact. You must discard the word Fancy altogether. You have nothing to do with it. Men and ladies who can talk freely, but do nothing, fail in everything they attempt.

There is too much vision mixed with the fact. Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a hindrance. This is not a neurosis or an excuse. At least I hope it is not. It is, I suspect, just life the way it has worked out for me. I am obviously not ruthless enough in rejecting the demands that other people, often people I have never seen, make on my time.

Like any writer who makes some kind of name, I find my mail heavy with letters from admirer of my work and aspiring people seeking my help and advice. I confess I can no more leave a letter unanswered than I can leave the telephone ringing or shut the door in someone’s face.

I also find it impossible to dismiss with a bare acknowledgment a letter on any subject that interests me; a reply which starts out to be a short note more often than not expands into a four page typewritten letter, enclosed with a kiss, and encourages a prolonged exchange of correspondence. So a substantial part of my time and energy goes into the writing of letters and it adds not a single tangible element of career advancement to my literary output.

The most energetic person might consider this to be a full hand, but the best excuses I am able to find do not satisfy me. And that is where the Urian blood took over. When my forebears wished to pioneer a new piece of country in the New World they did not sit round thinking about it until the obstacles looked insuperable; they went out and did it. In the same way I am excited to sit down and write these letters with passion and excitement and gratitude.

My question is not perhaps so much where I am going, as where so much time and effort had gone and whether the dream of doing something worthwhile “when there was time” was anything more than an excuse for lack of discipline and real ability. My domestic obligations are heavy. Sin is never in season; and—alas!—it is never out of season when the devil is master. Period! Give me a break. The gardens remove plants that do not belong.

I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. The Earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.

He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—the dark rain clouds of the sky. Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning. The LORD thundered from Heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning routed them. The valley of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the Earth laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me; they confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support.

He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me. Sometimes I examine myself to determine where I have failed to make my mark as a journalist. If I had a child, he could be in high school by now, and I still do not have my large home in the Netherlands.

However, Batman Refrigeration Company trades in an old machine on a new model when the fair market value of the old machine is greater than its book value. Should Batman recognize a gain on disposal? If the fair market value of the old machine is less than its book value, should Batman recognize a loss on disposal?

Why should I, who have such real evils to contend with, regard imaginary ones? The evil risk more to serve evil than the good risk to serve good. Ignorance and prejudice are the only real evils. The evil spirts always hate the good ones. It is a great mistake to think that anybody is an angel or a devil.