Orison Swett Marden

If you want to get rich, study yourself and your own wants. You will find that millions have the same wants. The safest business is always…

Believe me when I tell you that thrift of time will repay you in after life with a usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dreams, and that waste…

"What is the price of that book?" at length asked a man who had been dawdling for an hour in the front store of Benjamin Franklin's newspaper…

The would-be purchaser looked over the books on sale a while longer, and then inquired: "Is Mr. Franklin in?" "Yes," said the clerk, "he is very busy…

The man seemed surprised; but, wishing to end a parley of his own seeking, he demanded: "Well, come now, tell me your lowest price for this book."…

The man silently laid the money on the counter, took his book, and left the store, having received a salutary lesson from a master in the art of…

On the floor of the gold-working room, in the United States Mint at Philadelphia, there is a wooden lattice-work which is taken up when the floor…

"All that I have accomplished, expect to, or hope to accomplish," said Elihu Burritt, "has been and will be by that plodding, patient, persevering…

"I have been wondering how Ned contrived to monopolize all the talents of the family," said a brother, found in a brown study after listening to…

The days come to us like friends in disguise, bringing priceless gifts from an unseen hand; but, if we do not use them, they are borne silently away,…

"Oh, it's only five minutes or ten minutes till mealtime; there's no time to do anything now," is one of the commonest expressions heard in the…

Marion Harland has accomplished wonders, and she has been able to do this by economizing the minutes to shape her novels and newspaper articles, when…

Hugh Miller, while working hard as a stone-mason, found time to read scientific books, and write the lessons learned from the blocks of stone he…

Madame de Genlis, when companion of the future Queen of France, composed several of her charming volumes while waiting for the princess to whom she…

If a genius like Gladstone carried through life a little book in his pocket lest an unexpected spare moment slip from his grasp, what should we of…

While Michael Faraday was employed binding books, he devoted all his leisure to experiments. At one time he wrote to a friend, "Time is all I require…

Alexander von Humboldt's days were so occupied with his business that he had to pursue his scientific labors in the night or early morning, while…

One hour a day withdrawn from frivolous pursuits and profitably employed would enable any man of ordinary capacity to master a complete science.…

Every young man should have a hobby to occupy his leisure hours, something useful to which he can turn with delight. It might be in line with his…

If one chooses wisely, the study, research, and occupation that a hobby confers will broaden character and transform the home.

"He has nothing to prevent him but too much idleness, which, I have observed," says Burke, "fills up a man's time much more completely and leaves him…

Some boys will pick up a good education in the odds and ends of time which others carelessly throw away, as one man saves a fortune by small…

John Q. Adams complained bitterly when robbed of his time by those who had no right to it. An Italian scholar put over his door the inscription:…

Many of the greatest men of history earned their fame outside of their regular occupations in odd bits of time which most people squander. Spenser…

Great men have ever been misers of moments. Cicero said: "What others give to public shows and entertainments, nay, even to mental and bodily rest, I…

George Stephenson seized the moments as though they were gold. He educated himself and did much of his best work during his spare moments. He learned…

Caesar said: "Under my tent in the fiercest struggle of war I have always found time to think of many other things." He was once shipwrecked, and had…

Dr. Mason Good translated "Lucretius" while riding to visit his patients in London. Dr. Darwin composed most of his works by writing his thoughts…

The present time is the raw material out of which we make whatever we will. Do not brood over the past, or dream of the future, but seize the instant…

Lord Brougham could not bear to lose a moment, yet he was so systematic that he always seemed to have more leisure than many who did not accomplish a…

The worst of a lost hour is not so much in the wasted time as in the wasted power. Idleness rusts the nerves and makes the muscles creak. Work has…

Dalton's industry was the passion of his life. He made and recorded over two hundred thousand meteorological observations.

In factories for making cloth a single broken thread ruins a whole web; it is traced back to the girl who made the blunder and the loss is deducted…

Time is money. We should not be stingy or mean with it, but we should not throw away an hour any more than we would throw away a dollar-bill. Waste…

"And it is left for each," says Edward Everett, "by the cultivation of every talent, by watching with an eagle's eye for every chance of improvement,…

It seems a great hardship, indeed, for a young man with an ambition to do something in the world to be compelled to pay his own way through school…

The average boy of to-day who wishes to obtain a liberal education has a better chance by a hundredfold than had Daniel Webster or James A. Garfield.…

"Of the five thousand persons--students,--directly connected with Harvard University," writes a graduate, "five hundred are students entirely or…

"There are some men that make much more. A classmate of the writer entered college with about twenty-five dollars. As a freshman he had a hard…

"He made his money by advertising schemes and other publishing ventures. A few months after graduation he married. He is now living comfortably in…

A son of poor parents, living in Springfield, New York, worked his way through an academy. This only whetted his appetite for knowledge, and he…

Albert J. Beveridge, the junior United States Senator from Indiana, entered college with no other capital than fifty dollars loaned to him by a…

The president of his class at Columbia University recently earned the money to pay for his course by selling agricultural implements. One of his…

A representative American college president recently said: "I regard it as, on the whole, a distinct advantage that a student should have to pay…

Circumstances have rarely favored great men. A lowly beginning is no bar to a great career. The boy who works his way through college may have a hard…

Gaius B. Frost was graduated at the Brattleboro, Vt., High School, taught district schools six terms, and entered Dartmouth College with just money…

Isaac J. Cox of Philadelphia worked his way through Kimball Academy, Meriden, N. H., and through Dartmouth College, doing many kinds of work. There…

For four years Richard Weil was noted as the great prize winner of Columbia College, and for "turning his time, attention and energy to any work that…

All these and many more from the ranks of the bright and well-trained young men who have been graduated from the colleges and universities of the…

In an investigation conducted to ascertain exact figures and facts which a poor boy must meet in working his way through college, it was found that,…

Amherst makes a free gift of the tuition to prospective ministers; has one hundred tuition scholarships for other students of good character, habits,…

Bowdoin has nearly a hundred scholarships, fifty dollars to seventy-five dollars a year: "no limits placed on habits or social privileges of…

Brown University has over a hundred tuition scholarships and a loan fund; often remits room rent in return for services about the college buildings;…

The cost at Columbia University averages five hundred and forty-seven dollars, the lowest being three hundred and eighty-seven dollars. A great…

Cornell University gives free tuition and free rooms to seniors and juniors of good standing in their studies and of good habits. It has thirty-six…

Dartmouth has some three hundred scholarships; those above fifty dollars conditioned on class rank; some rooms at nominal rent; requirements, economy…

Harvard has about two hundred and seventy-five scholarships, sixty dollars to four hundred dollars apiece, large beneficiary and loan funds,…

The University of Pennsylvania in a recent year gave three hundred and fifteen students forty-three thousand, two hundred and forty-two dollars in…

Wesleyan University remits tuition wholly or in part to two-thirds of its under-graduates. Loan funds are available. "Beneficiaries must be frugal in…

Yale is pretty well off now for fellowships and prizes; remits all but forty dollars of term bills, in case of worthy students, regular in attendance…