The old saying that “honesty is the best policy” has lost its original force by much repetition.  And it does not go far enough, either.  I am speaking of more than mere mercantile honesty; I am speaking of political sincerity, of intellectual sincerity.  Never attempt to fool anybody.  We live at such a rate of speed, our perceptions have become so abnormally sensitive and acute, that it is next to impossible to deceive any one; and he who attempts it is usually the only one deceived.

If, then, a man can mount upon this humble stepping-stone of low personal interest to sincerity for the sake of his own advantage, he will, after a while, be able to climb higher, to the exalted plane of truthfulness for the sake of truth; and then he will behold the beatitudes of righteous living, and experience the joys which putting oneself in harmony with the order of the universe and the on-going of events never fails to bring.  As a great scientist puts it, “Establish your polarity, young man, and sleep soundly at night.”

And courage:  A successful manufacturer said to me one day, in explaining his own success:  "I never let my idea get cold. That, I think, is why I have succeeded.  When a great business deal came to my mind, I did not waste my energy inquiring about whether I could do it.  I did not waste time and strength regretting that I was not stronger.  I did not destroy my force by doubting my own conception.  I went at it.  I did it.  I spent all my energy on execution after I had once conceived it.  Did I not make mistakes following such a plan?  Why, of course I made mistakes; and God protect me from the man who never made a mistake!

“But acting by that method alone,” said he, “is the way I achieved all my triumphs.  I do not pursue that course now, because I am getting old, and I am in very poor health.  Age and ill health make me doubt; so I have not made any large business success for several years.  I should say that the reason why so many men who are really capable intellectually fail, is because they are infidels to their own thought, traitors to their own conception.

“If I could concentrate all the advice of my life into one thing,” declared this strong wise man, in concluding his comments on failure and success, “it would be for those young men who expect to do something constructive to have faith in their idea, and act upon it before it gets cold.  There is a tremendous force in the enthusiasm of your freshly formed plan.  You have contributed largely to the defeat of your scheme when you have permitted yourself to doubt it.”

It was only the other day that the newspapers were full of an extraordinary achievement of one of the American magicians of business; and the papers said that the remarkable thing about it was that the plan flashed upon him in a single evening, as he was leaving for a long vacation.  He acted upon it instantly, and devoted his fortune, reputation, almost life, to its consummation.  He succeeded.  If he had taken six months to have thought over it, his conception would have been abandoned.