248 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-MASTERY
painting by Rembrandt becomes a mere smudge of daubed paint if we
come too near it.
Destroy the hope of unfinished dreams in a person's heart and he
or she is finished.
The moment we cease to cherish the vision of future achievement we
are through. Nature has built us so that our greatest and only lasting
happiness is that which we feel in the pursuit of some yet unattained
object. Anticipation is sweeter than realization. That which is at hand
does not satisfy. The only enduring satisfaction is that which comes to
the person who keeps alive in their heart the hope of future achieve-
ment. When that hope dies, write finis across the human heart.
Life's greatest inconsistency is that most of what we believe is not
true. Russell Conwell wrote an extremely popular lecture called "Acres
of Diamonds:' The central idea of the lecture was that one need not
seek opportunity in the distance; that opportunity may be found in
the vicinity of one's birth. Perhaps, but how many believe it?
Opportunity may be found wherever one really looks for it, and
nowhere else! To most of us the picking looks better on the other side
of the fence. How futile it is to urge one to try their luck in their little
hometown, when it is human nature to look for opportunity in some
other locality.
Do not worry because the grass looks sweeter on the other side of
the fence. Nature intended it so. Thus does she allure us and groom us
for the lifelong task of growth through struggle.
SOME MODERN "MIRACLES"
Some people doubt the authenticity of the Bible because they believe
that if miracles could have been performed over two thousand years
ago, before the dawn of science, while the world was still steeped in
illiteracy and superstition, it should be just as easy to perform them
today.