ENTHUSIASM 477know your weakness because I know my own. It has required the better
part of twenty-five years of ups and downs-mostly downs-to impress
these basic truths on my own mind so that they influenced me. I have
tried both them and their opposites; therefore, I can speak not as one
who merely believes in their soundness, but as one who knows.
And what do I mean by "these truths"?
So that you cannot possibly misunderstand my meaning, and so that
these words of warning cannot possibly convey an abstract meaning, I
will state that by "these truths" I mean this:
You cannot afford to suggest to another person, by word oj mouth or by an
act oj yours, anything that you do not believe.
Surely, that is plain enough.
And the reason you cannot afford to do so, is this:
1j you compromise with your own conscience, it will not be long before
you will have no conscience;for your conscience will jail to gUide you, just as
an alarm clock will jail to awaken you if you do not heed it.
Surely, that is plain enough also.
And how do I happen to be an authority on this vital subject? I
am an authority because I have experimented with the principle until
I know how it works!
"But;' you may ask, "how do I know that you are telling the truth?"
The answer is you will know only by experimentingjor yourselj, and by
observing others who jait/fully apply this principle and those who do not apply it.
If my evidence needs backing, then consult anyone whom you know
to be a person who has "tried to get by" without observing this principle,
and if they will not or cannot give you the truth, you can get it never-
theless by analyzing the character of the person.
There is but one thing in the world that gives us real and enduring
power, and that is character. Reputation, bear in mind, is not character.
Reputation is that which people are believed to be; character is that
which people are! If you would be a person of great influence, then be
a person of real character.