Dredging Google Books was fruitful today, uncovering some new items by or about Napoleon Hill.
Postage and the Mailbag, July 1918:
The Inland Printer, (first, second):
The American Stationer, June 5, 1920:
Work and Wealth
By Napoleon Hill.
One of the greatest earthly blessings is the privilege of wholesome, honorable work. The only wealth of the world is that which is produced through work. Money is the long arm which sustains industry and commerce but labor is the lifeblood which keeps that arm alive!
To know the value of work one must have been without it for awhile. Work builds the sky-scrapers and the mansions. It builds the locomotives and the palace cars. It builds the airplanes and the ocean liners. Work wrests from Nature the secrets which she will give up for nothing else.
Work brings happiness and joy; idleness brings misery and despondency. Work brings the greatest of life’s heritage — health!
Fame and fortune awaits the man who builds a system of education which will teach children to understand the value of work, and to love it!
The toy-makers will bestow a favor upon the world if they will build toys which will teach children to want to work!
A man begins to succeed when he finds the particular kind of work which he loves most. No man should engage in work which he does not love, no matter how much money he may receive for it.
Nature has planned that every living being on earth shall work. All who try to shun it come to grief sooner or later, in one way or another. A man must work, no matter how much money he may have, or he cannot digest his food and disease soon seizes him.
The man who plans to relieve his children from work because he has accumulated money is only storing up trouble for them. Fate waits around the corner with a loaded club for the boy whose over-indulgent parents have spoiled his taste for wholesome work.
You can avoid work but you cannot dodge paying the penalty. Nature will see that you pay up in due time.
(Copyright, 1920, Hill’s Golden Rule Magazine.)
The Fra: For Philistines and Roycrofters, August 1915:
As I Journey Through Life
By Napoleon Hill
Founder of the Betsy Ross Candy Company
I wish to be of service to my fellowmen as I journey through life, and I wish to carry with me, wherever I go, a disposition of sunshine and goodfellowship. To do this I have adopted a guide which I shall endeavor to follow in dealing with my fellow-beings throughout life’s journey. A part of this guide I adopted in my boyhood days, and a part of it I picked up from observation as I grew into a more mature age and as I learned from personal contact with men and women that life is pretty much what we make it — that we largely control our own destinies and our own progress on this earth. For the benefit of those who may wish to emulate me in adopting so much of my daily guide as may be conveniently put into use by them in their own dealings with their fellowmen, I submit a copy of it as follows:
To train myself so that never, under any circumstances whatever, shall I find fault with a single person, no matter how much I may disagree with him or how inferior his work may seem to be, so long as I know he is sincerely trying to do his best.
To respect my country, my profession, and myself. To be honest and fair with my fellowmen, as I expect them to be honest and fair with me. To be a loyal citizen of the United States of America. To speak of it with praise, and act always as a trustworthy custodian of its good name. To be a man whose name carries weight wherever it goes.
To base my expectations of reward on a solid foundation of service rendered. To be willing to pay the price of success in honest effort. To look upon my work as an opportunity to be seized with joy and made the most of, and not as a painful drudgery to be reluctantly endured.
To remember that success lies within myself — in my own brain, my own ambition, my own courage and determination. To expect difficulties and force my way through them. To turn hard experience into capital for future struggles.
To believe in my proposition heart and soul. To carry an air of optimism in the presence of those I meet. To dispel ill-temper with cheerfulness, kill doubts with a strong conviction, and reduce active friction with an agreeable personality.
To make a study of my business. To know my profession in every detail. To mix brains with my efforts and use system and method in my work. To find time to do every needful thing by never letting time find me doing nothing. To hoard days as a miser hoards dollars. To make every hour bring me dividends, increased knowledge or healthful recreation.
To keep my future unmortgaged by debts. To save as well as to earn. To cut out expensive amusements until I can afford them. To steer clear of dissipation and guard my health of body and peace of mind as a most precious stock in trade.
To avoid procrastination in all of its various forms, and never, under any circumstances, to put off until tomorrow any duty which I should perform today.
To endeavor to give something to the world in return for the food and raiment which the world gives me, and to so live in the pursuit of my daily occupation that I will make those with whom I come in contact happy.
To reap a rich harvest of happiness from the thought that my aim in life shall be to give happiness, help and encouragement to those around me, and to expect my reward in a generous return of these same virtues, in exact proportion to the seeds I sow which generate them.
Finally, to take a good grip on the joys of life. To play the game like a man. To fight against nothing so hard as my own weaknesses.
So I may be courteous to men, faithful to friends, true to God — a fragrance in the path I tread.
Previously here:
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