2. What other proverbs with the same meaning as this one can you find?
This stanza is engraved over one of the old colleges of Oxford University, a great seat of learning in England.
He who reads and reads And does not what he knows, Is he who plows and plows And never sows.
There are two kinds of men in the world: those who sail and those who drift; those who choose the ports to which they will go and skillfully and boldly shape their course across the seas, with the wind or against it, and those who let winds and tides carry them where they will. The 5 men who sail, in due time arrive; those who drift, often cover greater distances but they never make port.
The men who sail know where they want to go and what they want to do; they do not wait on luck or fortune or favorable currents; they depend on themselves and 10 expect no help from circumstances. Success of the real kind is always in the man who wins it, not in conditions. No man becomes great by accident; great things are never done by chance; a man gets what he pays for it, in character, in work, and in energy. A boy would better put 15 luck out of his mind if he means to accomplish anything. There are few really fine things which he cannot get if he is willing to pay the price.
Keep ahead of your work, and your work will push your fortunes for you. Our employers do not decide whether we 20 shall stay where we are or go on and up; we decide that matter ourselves. We can drift along, doing our work fairly well; or we can set our faces to the front and do our work so well that we cannot be kept back. In this way we make or mar our own fortunes. Success or failure is not 25 chosen for us; we choose for ourselves.
Time is the stuff life is made of, says Benjamin Franklin. Every man has exactly the same amount of it in a year. One improves it and reaps great results. Another wastes it and reaps failure. The first class, they call lucky; the second, unfortunate. 5
To use time aright, have a system. Shape everything to it. Divide the twenty-four hours between work, recreation, sleep, and mental culture according to a scheme that suits your judgment and circumstances. Then make things go that way. The scheme will quickly go to pieces 10 unless backed by persistent purpose.