To the Unknown Teacher

Henry Van Dyke

I sing the praise of the Unknown Teacher. Generals win campaigns,

but it is the Unknown Soldier who wins the war. Famous educators plan

new systems of pedagogy, but it is the Unknown Teacher who delivers

and guides the young. He lives in obscurity and contends with hardship.

For him no trumpets blare, no chariots wait, no golden decorations are

decreed. He knows the watch along the borders of darkness, and makes

the attack on the trenches of ignorance and folly. Patient in his duty, he

strives to conquer the evil powers which are the enemies of youth. He

awakens sleeping spirits. He quickens the indolent, encourages the

eager and steadies the unstable. He communicates his own joy of

learning, and shares with boys and girls the best treasures of the mind.

He lights many candles, which, in later years, will shine back and cheer

him. This is his reward. No one is more worthy to be enrolled in the

democratic aristocracy, “King of himself and servant of mankind.”

My Creed
 Dean Alfange

I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be

uncommon, if I can. I seek opportunity, not security. I do not wish to

be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.

I want to take the calculated risk, to dream and to build, to fail and to

succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenge

of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale

calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity

for a handout. It is my heritage to think and to act for myself, to enjoy

the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, “This I

have done.” All this is what it means to be a free man.

On Courage
J. Edgar Hoover
 “He that loses wealth loses much;
But he that loses courage loses all.”
-- Cervantes

Cervantes’ words affirm that courage is a priceless ingredient of

character. The will to do, the tenacity to overcome all obstacles and

finish the course, the strength to cling to inexorable ideals, are rooted in

courage. It is the outward manifestation of our spiritual development.

I have never seen a courageous criminal. True, some exhibit

bravado behind a gun or in the protection of overwhelming numbers, but

that is not real courage. I am speaking of the kind which is vital to the

preservation and perpetuation of a free nation: the mental and moral

courage which drives us to seek truth. It is the kind which enables us to

stand by our convictions, to uphold right for the sake of right. It was

this courage which built America. This is the high courage we must

develop as pioneers of the Atomic Age. In Cervantes’ words lie both a

challenge and a warning.

The Art of Success

Wifired A. Peterson
There are no secrets of success. Success is doing the things you
know you should do. Success is not doing the things you know you
should not do.
 Success is not limited to any one area of your life. It encompasses all
of the facets of your relationships: as parent, as wife or husband, as
citizen, neighbor, worker and all of the others.

Success is not confined to any one part of your personality but is

related to the development of all the parts: body, mind, heart and spirit. It
is making the most of your total self.

Success is discovering your best talents, skills and abilities and

applying them where they will make the most effective contribution to
your fellow men.

Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a
burning desire to achieve.

Success is ninety-nine percent mental attitude. It calls for love, joy,

optimism confidence, serenity, poise, faith, courage, cheerfulness,
imagination, initiative, tolerance, honesty, humility, patience and
enthusiasm.

Success is not arriving at the summit of a mountain as a final

destination. It is a continuing upward spiral of progress. It is perpetual
growth.

Success is having the courage to meet failure without being defeated.

It is refusing to let present loss interfere with your long-range goal.

Success is accepting the challenge of the difficult. In the inspiring

words of Phillips Brooks: “Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.
Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall
be no miracle, but you shall be the miracle.”
A Tribute to the Dog
George Graham Vest

The best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and
become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving
care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us,
those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become
traitors to their faith. The money that a man has may lose. It flies away
from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man’s reputation may be
sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are
prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may
be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud
upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in
this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never
proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.

A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and

in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds
blow and the snow drives fiercely, If only he may be near his master’s
side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer; he will lick the
wounds and sores that come from encounter with the roughness of the
world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.
When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and
reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its
journeys through the heavens.

If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless

and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of
accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his
enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the
master in its embrace, and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no
matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the grave will the
noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in
alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this
continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.
 Now we engage in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or
any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met
on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of
that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives, that
that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should
do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate –

we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather,
to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here,
have, thus far, so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated
to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we
take increased devotion to the cause for which they here gave the last full
measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth
of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish form the earth.

General MacArthur’s Prayer for His Son

Douglas MacArthur

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he

is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who
will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in
victory.
 Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son
who will know Thee and that to know himself is the foundation stone of
knowledge.

Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the
stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand
up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high; a
son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one
who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of
humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too
seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the
simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, and the
meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper,” I have not live in vain.”