Personal Growth

 

“To make my body a temple pure
Wherein I dwell serene;
To care for the things that shall endure,
The simple, sweet and clean.
To oust out envy and hate and rage,
To breathe with no alarm;
For Nature shall be my anchorage,
And none shall do me harm.”
— Robert Service

 

Sir Galahad

 

A number of resources on this website may be characterized under the general heading of “personal growth.”  This page serves as a guide and index, and should prove useful.  There are also a few links to external sources related to personal growth, such as James Allen’s As a Man Thinketh.

 

Works Related to Personal Growth and Self-Culture

Books and Culture, by Hamilton Wright Mabie

The Delicious Vice (Reading Novels), by Young E. Allison

Etiquette – A variety of resources on the important topic of courtesy.

Hints on Writing Love Letters

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, by Arnold Bennett

Letter to a Young Person Going to College, by Catherine Gurney

Literary Taste: How to Form It, by Arnold Bennett

Matters of Etiquette

Of Studies, by Sir Francis Bacon

Recreations of a Country Parson, by A. K. H. Boyd; both wise and charming.

Self Help, by Samuel Smiles

Self-Reliance, by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Success

Ten Canons for Practical Life, by Thomas Jefferson

Miscellaneous Essays Related to Personal Growth, by various authors

 

The Secret of Happiness

I followed happiness to make her mine,
Past towering oak and swinging ivy vine.
She fled, I chased, over slanting hill and dale,
Over fields and meadows, in the purpling vale.
Pursuing rapidly over dashing stream,
I scaled dizzy cliffs where the eagles scream;
I traversed swiftly every land and sea,
But always happiness eluded me.
Exhausted, fainting, I pursued no more,
But sank to rest upon the barren shore.
One came and asked for food, and one for alms;
I placed the bread and gold in bony palms;
One came for sympathy, and one for rest;
I shared with every needy one my best;
When lo! sweet Happiness, with form divine,
Stood by me, whispering softly, “I am thine.”
– Burleigh
 

Peaceable Kingdom

 

 

“If evil be said of thee, and it be true, correct thyself;
if it be a lie, laugh at it.”

******

“Look not thou on beauty’s charming,
Sit thou still when kings are arming,
Taste not when the wine-cup glistens,
Speak not when the people listens,
Stop thine ear against the singer,
From the red gold keep thy finger,
Vacant heart, and hand, and eye,
Easy live and quiet die.”

– Sir Walter Scott

*******

 

Related Works on Other Websites:

As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen, on the World Spirituality website.

The Path to Prosperity, by James Allen, also on the World Spirituality website.