By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Habit is a fixed series of acts. Do a thing once and Tracks are marked. Do a thing twice and a Route is mapped. Do a thing thrice and a Path is blazed.

Do the Right thing over and over again.

From the unconscious wink of the eye to the smooth, unnoticed movements of a million worlds, the law of Habit relentlessly rules its course. All life is but a set of Habits.

Do the Right thing over and over again.

The Pennies saved to-day make the Nickels in the bank to-morrow. The Nickels in the bank to-morrow spell the Dollars in the bank next year. The Dollars saved, crystallize into the Fortune after the years! Habit either makes or breaks — either leads you up or drags you down.

Do the Right thing over and over again.

If you are Prompt to-day you will want to be Prompt to-morrow. If you are Square once you will surely seek to be Square again. The fight for a thing Worth While right now cannot help but ease the fight for the thing Worth While later on. It is the law of Habit. And Habit creeps on from the minutest Action repeated over and over again.

Do the Right thing over and over again.

Grow Great off of Habit! There is no other way. Start what you do start — Right. Or else begin all over again. You can fondle the eggs of a Python but you can’t play with the Python. You can break the bad habit to-day, but if you wait until to-morrow the bad Habit will break you.

Do the Right thing over and over again.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Stir up your Salt. For Salt — translated into terms of moral use — is the stuff that seasons and balances one’s work — keeps it from swaying into mediocrity, commonness and nothingness — it’s Grit, Courage, Back-bone, refined to the crystal degree. That’s Salt!

Stir up your Salt.

A man without Salt in his system is about as active a thing as a watch without works. Neither one goes.

Stir up your Salt.

The blood and body of a man is saturated with Salt. When a man’s Salt runs out the man runs out. Stir up your Salt. Salt is the thing that savors Mankind.

Stir up your Salt.

You are worth your Salt if you have worth to add to your Salt. Salt has no value alone. Salt is a partner ingredient. It’s a complement to what you already have to mix with it.

Stir up your Salt.

Salt is at once the commonest and rarest thing in all the world. It’s nowhere — yet almost everywhere. But it’s yours to take and use. Salt in your work is evenness of Effort, solidness of Purpose and assuredness of Faith in Results — Hope for better things — Courage for bigger tasks.

As you work through the minutes and the hours, keep it firmly in mind that Success must needs have its share of Salt.

Stir up your Salt.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

The sweetest word in the Language of Languages is that of — Mother. There is in each letter of this word a wealth of music so Divine — there are vibrating chords of Love so Angelic — that the whole world often pays Homage to Mothers whom it honors.

Nancy Hanks — the Mother of Lincoln; Frances Willard and Jane Addams — Mothers to the Motherless; Queen Victoria — the Mother of a Nation of Mothers. You — whoever you are — your greatest Asset is your Mother. You — bankrupt, discouraged, failure-riddled, hope-wasted, heart-wrenched, self-estranged — there remains still a Day, glorious in Sunsets for you if you will but get back again, in Thought, or Heart, or Person — to your Mother.

The most wonderful Event in the History of the World was when the first Woman became — a Mother. Human Life has become a beautiful thing because the world has had its Mothers. The greatest Characters in every community are the Mothers. The greatest community is that which honors its Mothers most. The greatest men in any community are those who render the highest tribute to Motherhood.

No one ever has Surpassed or ever will Surpass the achievement of a Woman when she becomes a Mother. When did you last write to your Mother? If she has gone from you, how often do you think of her? Do you realize that all you are or ever hope to be, started back into the years when your Mother, her whole being pulsating with Pride, held you tight, and with eyes lustered and watered with Love, watched your very Breath, and kept pace, over the hours, with your faintest Heart Throbs? Think of how, all through those days she wrapped you in her Unselfishness and her Sacrifices.

The measure of your Success will be the degree of Honor you pay to your Mother and to Motherhood. How many indelicate stories would you tell if your Mother could always be present? How many mean and unjust affairs would you bring to pass if you had the eyes of your Mother looking on?

Never mind about the “Apron Strings.” There always comes a time when there are no “Apron Strings” to be tied to. And then you will long for them to come back. If ever Failure begins to press; if ever Friends begin to fade away; if ever the grand figure of your Will shall begin to bow its Power — do this — think of your Mother and live up to her ideals of you.

Kiss your Mother as you go into the fight of this day. And at its close fill her furrowed forehead with your Smiles. Ease her Cares. Write to her though business go to Smash. Go and see her often though it takes you across the Globe. Let her Living Presence keep you Courageous.

And if she has gone from you let her Memory Guide and Inspire you as once you Guided and Inspired her Faith.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

To you who early learn the value of Play applied to your life, and to you who learn just when to apply it, there is opened a road, both wide and short into the town of Peace, Power and Plenty.

Play.

Play stretches the Muscles, rests and soothes the Nerves, stirs the Blood and Clears the Brain. Play Stays the Hand of Age and transplants Youth all along through the advancing Years.

Play.

Play lifts the Burdens from people’s shoulders — Smoothes out the Wrinkles from their Faces and starts Smiles and Joy anew. Play. Play is a Strangler of Worry, an Enemy of Ill-Health and a mighty Force in the Creating of Clean, Strong Thinking.

Play is Insurance against Failure. Play. Play at outdoor Sports. Play at your Books.

Play with your “kiddies” if you have them, and with other people’s “kiddies” if you have none yourself. Play before you start your day and Play at its Close. And occasionally “skip” a day that you may also Play.

Play hard when you do Play. But never Play when you Work and never Work when you Play. Neither make Play out of Work nor Work out of Play.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

Friends are essentials. Just as air and food and clothing are essentials. For is not he who has no Friends lacking and lonely and useless? Who ever heard of a useless man having Friends? Like attracts like. No one ever secured a Friend without first vibrating the Friend spirit within himself.

To get a Friend you must be a Friend. The Friend art is a Heart art — all else cheapens it. He to whom we talk and confide and trust is but another of us transplanted where courage and cheer and kindness is ever alert. We go to our Friend and he lifts us up and we feel him coming back to his own again — in ourselves.

A Friend is a mutual partner with whom we need no signed agreements. It is said of Carlyle and Tennyson that they would sit for hours together without the passing of a word and then separate. And both inspired and uplifted because of the meeting! To reach the priceless treasure veins of a Friend it is necessary to go deep.

In the presence of real Friends a sort of Divinity hovers. Back of the knowledge that you have a Friend is the secret of your ability to press on and win at your plans. The glory of Friend joy depends not in numbers. Have but one real Friend — and it is enough! The one that will not refuse to understand you, or protect you, but that through the solid and harsh hour of test, will gladly be the other half of the fight with you. He is your Friend who brings out of you the best of which you are capable.

You and your Friend plan no Parades. You are as you are. The sincerity of Service leads you on — makes each day as certain of Success as though it had already been completed and handed to you. If you are in doubt as to what you ought to be in the world, set yourself to the task of making of yourself a great Friend. Remembering that — A lifetime is all too short in which to be a Friend and get Friends.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

If you only realized how much you min in Pleasure, Growth and increased Power every time you push Responsibility upon someone else, you would never again let a chance pass to do what comes to you to do.

Once for all, break the “Let George Do It” habit.

When a task steps up before you — take hold of it and do it Yourself. In every community — in this community — there are always big, ready, generous, willing people quick to respond to any call for Service at the moment someone else shirks. They are the “Georges.” And if you will let them perform your work, they will do it. But when they do — you move Backward. YOU — be a “George.”

Work that should be done by Yourself is never done so well when shifted to someone else. You are either a Do or a Let Do. It is a personal matter of Success or Failure as to which you are.

The “Let George Do It” folks are easily spotted. They line the sidewalks of every busy street. They do the “easy” jobs in the Stores and Factories. They are the fellows that board at Jails and Alms Houses and keep the Lawyers busy. They are the men and women that are “too busy” to do what is asked and required of them to do.

Don’t “Let George Do It.” Do it YOURSELF.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

One of the most difficult things in this world to get control of is the human Tongue. Kipling never said anything truer than when he wrote that “Man may hold most any post if he’ll only hold his Tongue.”

Before you set your Tongue to action get it under perfect Control.

A single Tongue can do more harm in the world than a Battalion of Soldiers. For Soldiers can kill but Bodies while the Tongue can kill Reputations and Characters. It is too bad that we have no laws to curb Tongues.

Shakespeare powerfully pictured in the character of Iago the terrible consequences following in the path of an evil Tongue. Iago not only destroyed the Reputation and pure Character of Desdemona, but he finally, through Othello, killed her body.

Compel your Tongue to speak Helpful Messages or else keep it still. Make it a rule of your life to use your Tongue for high purposes alone. Resolve to speak in no way of any man or woman unless you can speak of the good qualities of that man or woman. No one ever gained Happiness out of injuring the Feelings or Character of someone else. No one ever failed to get Happiness by speaking well of other people.

The Golden Rule applied to the Tongue comprises one of the real Golden Rules of Conduct.

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By George Matthew Adams (1913)

In life you are either on the Side Lines or else in the Game. If you are on the Side Lines you are merely watching. You are inactive. You are contributing to your personal pleasure. If you are in the Game you are playing hard, you are getting pleasure and you are rendering Service.

You will always get more pleasure out of the Game if you are a Player instead of a Bystander. All along the streets of any town or city are lined the Bystanders. Inside the Stores and Offices and Factories are housed the Workers. The Workers are the ones who support the Bystanders.

Let no man do for you what you ought to do for Yourself. To be the mere title-holder of a Job counts for little. You must be the Job in every sense of the word or else you may be classed with the Bystanders. The worst thing about the Bystander is that he Contributes neither to himself nor other people — he is a Blank.

The surest law in the world is the Law of Compensation. Its Justice works continually. If you do a Service you get back a Service. If you do Nothing you get back Nothing. Mere existence is not Living. Into your twenty-four hours put Work and Play and Rest, but at no time be a Bystander.

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