The Sheet
Note: this is my religion, and it should be yours as well. It contains the truest, most useful words ever written, from a variety of sources. It is called The Sheet because it can fit on a single legal-sized sheet of paper (8 pt font, 0.05 inch margins, front and back).
For our allies - may they toil fruitfully on Earth and rest soundly in Heaven. And for our enemies, God help them.
The purpose of life is to manifest eternal forms. The rewards for doing so are manifest: meat and fruit to eat, an able body, warm clothing, a secure home, land to roam, a devoted spouse, loving children, reliable friends, peaceful neighbors, mastery of a domain, opportunities for adventure, and a mind at ease. The virtues which most reliably lead to these victories are fourfold: faith that success is attainable, fortitude to overcome all obstacles, gratitude for opportunities, and generosity with one’s winnings.
Bask in the glory of your creator every seventh day; do not worship false idols. Do not steal or suppress life force in yourself or others. Do not waste energy on that which you cannot control. Honor your father and your mother. Love your spouse. Train your children that they may attain greater heights than yourself. Seek out adventure with your friends. Become all that you can be. Give that which only you can give. Do that which only you can do. Treat strangers well upon first encounter. Thereafter, treat them as they treat you. May you choose victory.
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies. · One must have all the virtues to sleep well. Shall I bear false witness? Shall I commit adultery? Shall I covet my neighbor's maid? All that would go ill with good sleep. · He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying. · The doer alone learns. · The true man wants two things: danger and play. · He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. · He who has a why can withstand almost any how. · If a man has a great deal to put in them, a day will have a hundred pockets. · What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. · The sick are the greatest danger for the healthy; it is not from the strongest that harm comes to the strong, but from the weakest. · Life is continually shedding something that wants to die. · Happiness is the feeling that power increases — that resistance is being overcome.
This above all: to thine own self be true. · Hell is empty and all the devils are here. · Self-love is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting. · Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. · There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. · All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts. · We know what we are, but know not what we may be. · Better three hours too soon than a minute late. · Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. · When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions. · Things without all remedy should be without regard. What’s done is done. · Be great in act, as you have been in thought. · How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees? · The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. · Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after. · Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything. · The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. · If you search for good, you will find favor; but if you search for evil, it will find you! · The fool will be a servant to the wise. · Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest. · Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. · If you fail under pressure, your strength is too small. · Wounds from a friend are better than kisses from an enemy. · As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. · Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind. · Finishing is better than starting.
For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.
In the before times man lived in the dirt. In the after times he lived in the sky. In the present he winds his way slowly upward. · A dragon grew in two men’s minds. With courage that felt like fear, the first man slew the beast and ate its heart. He slept well that night. With cowardice that also felt like fear, the second man hid from the dragon. He lies awake still. · The snake man smiled at the woman. The other man, who knew not yet his own good and evil, hardened his gaze. The snake man left. · Winter had come, and all were cold. Then spring came, and some rejoiced while others worked. Winter came again, but this time not all were cold. · They always said his ideas were impractical, and they were almost always right. This time they were wrong. He watches them from his house atop the hill. · Her world had shrunk and she was sad. One day she saw the depth and breadth that remained. She smiled. · “The pains of doing it are too great”, he lied. Everyone agreed. Time passed. Now it cannot be done with any amount of pain. · The boy was born. After a time, he died. No one remembers him now. · There was great joy on the special day until one of the onlookers made a fuss. They still talk about that fuss to this day. · He thought that no one was looking. He checked that no one could see. He did it. Everyone knew. · The girl told the truth and they laughed. The woman told the truth and they gasped. · They talked about how good it would be for weeks, months, years. Then they tried it, and they didn’t have to talk anymore. · Defeat was certain, even for this fighter. He walked out while he still could. The weak called him weak and the strong called him strong. · They skipped the best part and said it would be fine. It wasn’t fine. · Together the couple lived for many years. They fought each other often and found it far preferable to fighting themselves. · She often thought that her peer was better. To her chagrin, her peer remains the better. · The voice was loud and growing louder. Finally he ran from it. By the time he died the voice had died too. · He went to the gathering with the strange people and used his nice words. He still thinks they are strange, but now they smile when they see him. · He said he would fix it even though it wasn’t his fault. They said he didn’t have to, but they were just being nice. · The father had worked so that his sons might do well. One son did well, and his son stood proud. The other son did not do well, and his son slumped.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
If we are not to become the slaves of our own systems or sink oppressed among the mechanism we have ourselves created, it will only be by the bold efforts of originality, by repeated experiment, by free and continual discussion of all things, and by the dispassionate consideration of the results of sustained and unflinching thought. · Danger gathers upon our path. We cannot afford - we have no right - to look back. We must look forward. · Thou art weighed in the balance and found wanting. And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. · We must not underrate the gravity of the task which lies before us or the temerity of the ordeal, to which we shall not be found unequal. · We have differed and quarreled in the past, but now one bond unites us all: to wage war until victory is won, and never to surrender ourselves to servitude and shame, whatever the cost and the agony may be. · I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. · If we fight to the end, it can only be glorious. · We shall go on to the end, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. · We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job. · We shall never turn from our purpose, however sombre the road, however grievous the cost, because we know that out of this time of trial and tribulation will be born a new freedom and glory for all mankind. · Let us move forward together in discharge of our mission and our duty, fearing God and nothing else.
We await undismayed the impending assault. Perhaps it will come tonight. Perhaps it will come next week. Perhaps it will never come. We must show ourselves equally capable of meeting a sudden violent shock or - what is perhaps a harder test - a prolonged vigil. But be the ordeal sharp or long, or both, we shall seek no terms, we shall tolerate no parley; we may show mercy - we shall ask for none. · The road to victory may not be so long as we expect. But we have no right to count upon this. Be it long or short, rough or smooth, we mean to reach our journey's end. We are still toiling up the hill; we have not yet reached the crest-line of it; we cannot survey the landscape or even imagine what its condition will be when that longed-for morning comes. The task which lies before us immediately is at once more practical, more simple and more stern. I hope — indeed, I pray — that we shall not be found unworthy of our victory if after toil and tribulation it is granted to us. For the rest, we have to gain the victory. That is our task.
We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy. There shall be no halting, or half measures, there shall be no compromise, or parley. These gangs of bandits have sought to darken the light of the world; have sought to stand between the common people of all the lands and their march forward into their inheritance. They shall themselves be cast into the pit of death and shame, and only when the earth has been cleansed and purged of their crimes and their villainy shall we turn from the task which they have forced upon us, a task which we were reluctant to undertake, but which we shall now most faithfully and punctiliously discharge. According to my sense of proportion, this is no time to speak of the hopes of the future, or the broader world which lies beyond our struggles and our victory. We have to win that world for our children. We have to win it by our sacrifices. We have not won it yet. The crisis is upon us. The power of the enemy is immense. If we were in any way to underrate the strength, the resources or the ruthless savagery of that enemy, we should jeopardize, not only our lives, for they will be offered freely, but the cause of human freedom and progress to which we have vowed ourselves and all we have. We cannot for a moment afford to relax. On the contrary we must drive ourselves forward with unrelenting zeal. In this strange, terrible world war there is a place for everyone, man and woman, old and young, hale and halt; service in a thousand forms is open. There is no room now for the dilettante, the weakling, for the shirker, or the sluggard. The mine, the factory, the dockyard, the salt sea waves, the fields to till, the home, the hospital, the chair of the scientist, the pulpit of the preacher — from the highest to the humblest tasks, all are of equal honour; all have their part to play. The enemies ranged against us, coalesced and combined against us, have asked for total war. Let us make sure they get it. Evidently the most strenuous exertions must be made by all. As to the form which those exertions take, that is for each partner in the grand alliance to judge for himself in consultation with others and in harmony with the general scheme. Let us then address ourselves to our task, not in any way underrating its tremendous difficulties and perils, but in good heart and sober confidence, resolved that, whatever the cost, whatever the suffering, we shall stand by one another, true and faithful comrades, and do our duty, God helping us, to the end.
Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours. · Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them. · What greater wealth is there than to own your life and to spend it on growing? Every living thing must grow. It can't stand still. It must grow or perish. · Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be left waiting for us in our graves - or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth.
In the last analysis a healthy state can exist only when the men and women who make it up lead clean, vigorous, healthy lives; when the children are so trained that they shall endeavor, not to shirk difficulties, but to overcome them; not to seek ease, but to know how to wrest triumph from toil and risk. · When men fear work or fear righteous war, when women fear motherhood, they tremble on the brink of doom; and well it is that they should vanish from the earth, where they are fit subjects for the scorn of all men and women who are themselves strong and brave and high-minded. · Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
If we stand idly by, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at hazard of their lives and at the risk of all they hold dear, then the bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by, and will win for themselves the domination of the world. Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and by word; resolute to be both honest and brave, to serve high ideals, yet to use practical methods. Above all, let us shrink from no strife, moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are certain that the strife is justified, for it is only through strife, through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win.
Discarding the two extremes, the men who deliberately work for evil, and the men who are unwilling or incapable of working for good, there remains the great mass of men who do desire to be efficient, who do desire to make this world a better place to live in, and to do what they can toward achieving cleaner minds and more wholesome bodies. To these, after all, we can only say: Strive manfully for righteousness, and strive so as to make your efforts for good count. You are not to be excused if you fail to try to make things better. One man’s capacity is for one kind of work and another man’s capacity for another kind of work. One affects certain methods and another affects entirely different methods. All this is of little concern. What is of really vital importance is that something should be accomplished, and that this something should be worthy of accomplishment. The field is of vast size, and the laborers are always too few. There is not the slightest excuse for one sincere worker looking down upon another because he chooses a different part of the field and different implements. It is inexcusable to refuse to work, to work slackly or perversely, or to mar the work of others.
Any man at times will stumble, and it is then our duty to lift him up and set him on his feet again; but no man can be permanently carried, for if he expects to be carried he shows that he is not worth carrying. · Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above both is character. · When we pay homage to the hardy, grim, resolute men who, with incredible toil and risk, laid deep the foundations of the civilization that we inherit, let us steadily remember that the only homage that counts is the homage of deeds - not merely of words. · Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. · To waste, destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed. · Softness of heart is an admirable quality, but when it extends its area until it also becomes softness of head, its results are anything but admirable.
Perhaps there is no more important component of character than steadfast resolution. The boy who is going to make a great man, or is going to count in any way in after life, must make up his mind not merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses or defeats. He may be able to wrest success along the lines on which he originally started. He may have to try something entirely new. On the one hand, he must not be volatile and irresolute, and, on the other hand, he must not fear to try a new line because he has failed in another.
We hold work not as a curse but as a blessing, and we regard the idler with scornful pity. It would be in the highest degree undesirable that we should all work in the same way or at the same things, and for the sake of the real greatness of the nation we should in the fullest and most cordial way recognize the fact that some of the most needed work must, from its very nature, be unremunerative in a material sense. Each man must choose so far as the conditions allow him the path to which he is bidden by his own peculiar powers and inclinations. If after making all the effort that his strength of body and of mind permits, he yet honorably fails, why, he is still entitled to a certain share of respect because he has made the effort. But if he does not make the effort, or if he makes it half-heartedly and recoils from the labor, the risk, or the irksome monotony of his task, why, he has forfeited all right to our respect, and has shown himself a mere cumberer of the earth. It is not given to us all to succeed, but it is given to us all to strive. There is no need of envying the idle. Ordinarily, we can afford to treat them with impatient contempt; for when they fail to do their duty they fail to get from life the highest and keenest pleasure that life can give.
To do our duty - that is the summing up of the whole matter. We must do our duty by ourselves and we must do our duty by our neighbors. Every good citizen, whatever his condition, owes his first service to those who are nearest to him, who are dependent upon him, to his wife, and his children; next he owes his duty to his fellow citizens, and this duty he must perform both to his individual neighbor and to the State, which is simply a form of expression for all his neighbors combined. He must keep his self-respect and exact the respect of others. It is eminently wise and proper to strive for such leisure in our lives as will give a chance for self-improvement; but woe to the man who seeks, or trains up his children to seek, idleness instead of the chance to do good work. We have built up this country not by seeking to avoid work, but by doing it well; not by flinching from every difficulty, but by triumphing over each as it arose and making out of it a stepping-stone to further triumph.
A race must be strong and vigorous; it must be a race of good fighters and good breeders, else its wisdom will come to naught and its virtue be ineffective; and no sweetness and delicacy, no love for and appreciation of beauty in art or literature, no capacity for building up material prosperity can possibly atone for the lack of the great virile virtues.
Freedom is not a gift that tarries long in the hands of cowards: nor yet does it tarry long in the hands of the sluggard and the idler, in the hands of the man so much absorbed in the pursuit of pleasure or in the pursuit of gain, or so much wrapped up in his own easy home life as to be unable to take his part in the rough struggle with his fellow men for political supremacy.
It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.