504 THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL POWERCOMMENTARY
Self-control is the ability to direct your thoughts, and thus your actions, in the
pursuit of your definite chief aim. In a very large sense, every lesson of Law of
Success is about self-control, but in this chapter Hill explores the issue with
specific regard to your dealings with other people.To be a person who is "well-balanced;' you must be a person in
whom Enthusiasm and Self-Control are equalized. A survey I have just
completed of I 60,000 adult inmates of penitentiaries in the United
States discloses the startling fact that 92 percent of these unfortunate
men and women are in prison because they lacked the necessary Self-
Control to direct their energies constructively.
Read the foregoing paragraph again; it is authentic, it is startling!
It is a fact that the majority of our personal grief comes about
through lack of Self-Control. The holy scriptures are full of admoni-
tion in support of Self-Control. They even urge us to love our enemies
and to forgive those who injure us.
Study the records of those whom the world calls great, and observe
that every one oj them possesses this quality oj Self-Control!
For example, study the characteristics of our own immortal Lincoln.
In the midst of his most trying hours he exercised patience, poise,
and Self-Control. These were some of the qualities that made him the
great man that he was. He found disloyalty in some of the members
of his cabinet; but because this disloyalty was toward him, personally,
and because those in whom he found it had qualities that made them
valuable to his country, Lincoln exercised Self-Control and disregarded
the objectionable qualities.
How many people do you know who have Self-Control to equal this?
In language more forceful than polished, Billy Sunday exclaimed
from the pulpit: "There is something as rotten as hell about the man
who is always trying to show some other fellow up!" I wonder if the
"devil" didn't yell "Amen, brother" when Billy made that statement?