* * * * *

    Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
    I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

    In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud. 
    Under the bludgeoning of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

    Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the horror of the shade,
    And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me, unafraid.

    It matters not how strait the gate
      How charged with punishment the scroll,
    I am the master of my fate;
      I am the captain of my soul.

    William Earnest Henley

* * * * *

Thought is the great builder in human life:  it is the determining factor.  Continually think thoughts that are good, and your life will show forth in goodness, and your body in health and beauty.  Continually think evil thoughts, and your life will show forth in evil, and your body in weakness and repulsiveness.  Think thoughts of love, and you will love and will be loved.  Think thoughts of hatred, and you will hate and will be hated.  Each follows its kind.

* * * * *

    Every day is a fresh beginning,
      Every morning is the world made new;
    You who are weary of sorrow and sinning,
      Here is a beautiful hope for you,
      A hope for me and a hope for you.

    All the past things are past and over,
      The tasks are done, and the tears are shed. 
    Yesterday’s errors let yesterday cover;
      Yesterday’s wounds, which smarted and bled,
      Are healed with the healing which night has shed.

    Every day is a fresh beginning,
      Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,
    And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning,
      And puzzles forecasted, and possible pain,
      Take heart with the day and begin again.

* * * * *

Each morning is a fresh beginning.  We are, as it were, just beginning life.  We have it entirely in our own hands.  And when the morning with its fresh beginning comes, all yesterdays should be yesterdays, with which we have nothing to do.  Sufficient is it to know that the way we lived our yesterday has determined for us our today.  And, again, when the morning with its fresh beginning comes, all tomorrows should be tomorrows, with which we have nothing to do.  Sufficient to know that the way we live our today determines our tomorrow.

Simply the first hour of this new day, with all its richness and glory, with all its sublime and eternity-determining possibilities, and each succeeding hour as it comes, but not before it comes—­this is the secret of character building.  This simple method will bring any one to the realization of the highest life that can be even conceived of, and there is nothing in this connection that can be conceived of that cannot be realized somehow, somewhen, somewhere.