Thursday, October 11, 2012


Solitude
By George Matthew Adams

There isn't a human being who doesn't need solitude - yet there are many who can't appreciate it when they have it.

In the truest sense, however, there can be no real solitude for to make solitude beautiful and full of warmth, there must be something about it to stimulate as well as to heal the tired and restless heart of him or her who would seek it.

Solitude in a hotel room, far from loved ones, is not to be commended, nor is it to be sought.

But solitude "out where the west begins" or amongst the hills and valleys of some sylvan stretch is to feed the soul on honey.

Solitude under a tree by the banks of some running stream, with the scent of wild flowers and the song of wild birds about, and a book in hand emphasizing the makes of some fine grained mind - that is solitude - both to be sought and enjoyed. In solitude we meet ourselves. We are stripped of all glamour and conceit and made to feel our frailty as well as our strength. For there are times when a man gets to himself only to find that he is not the weakling he and others supposed him to be. To spend such time is to enrich all mankind.

It is not surprising that others do not understand us when we misunderstand ourselves so much and so often. Solitude helps us to appraise our own gifts, our own inheritance.

Solitude helps to sweep out the mind, too. The little petty annoyances scamper off for richer booty and the solitary soul is left to feed upon its own treasured gains.

In solitude we gain self-confidence, see our own follies in their tinseled coverings, and are resolved to be better and do better.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The Thing That Melts


The Thing That Melts
By GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS

There is a key to every heart in the universe, and every human being carries that key: It is this kindness!

Kindness will melt the hardest heart. Kindness is able to turn tears into smiles. Kindness makes enemies your friends. Kindness inspires, uplifts—leads.

Kindness softens, smoothes—heals.

Kindness sweetens life. It sweeps whole continents of misunderstandings away like hills of sand before a huge tide.

Kindness is positive. It never offers excuses. It looks you in the face. It takes you by the hand. It doesn't care about what you have been—it only wants to know what you are.

Kindness is heaven here and now. Kindness is God. Kindness is sunshine right after the storm. Kindness is the song that thrills and gladdens and floods everything with light.

Kindness is a kind of an angel!


Monday, September 10, 2012

JUST BELIEVE!


Just Believe
By GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS


There is very little difference between success and failure. But that difference means everything, for it's the difference between belief and unbelief.

Believe—and words may pass!

The man who writes a better book, who builds a better building, who contructs a finer machine, who paints a better picture, than anybody else, is the man who first believes that he can do these things better than they have ever been done before.

Would you wipe out the achievements of a Napoleon or an Edison, or a Schwab, or a Whistler, you would first have to wipe out from the hope canopied heart of each of them their belief in ultimate glory.

For belief is the thing that drives a man to his goal. Tell him that he is not going to win, that the path before him is obstructed, and he will turn on you with eyes flashing like 30-karat diamonds and say to you "But I believe!"

You could wipe away the Rocky mountains easier than you could wipe from the brain of an indomitable man his belief, his faith for winning.

For it is the belief that a man carries within him that spurs him on, that trips up every failure along the way and that leads him with a high head and a straight-faced vision for the thing ahead he is going to see done.

If you want to move mountains, if you want to stamp a city somewhere, or put your character between the pages of history: just believe!

From the Milwaukee Sentinel - Mar 4, 1919