Pushing to the Front

Only a Dickens can write the history of "Boy Slavery," of boys whose aspirations and longings have been silenced forever by ignorant parents; of boys…

It is often a narrow selfishness in a father which leads him to wish his son a reproduction of himself. "You are trying to make that boy another you.…

Nature never duplicates men. She breaks the pattern at every birth. The magic combination is never used but once. Frederick the Great was terribly…

Ignorant parents compelled the boy Arkwright to become a barber's apprentice, but Nature had locked up in his brain a cunning device destined to…

Galileo was set apart for a physician, but when compelled to study anatomy and physiology, he would hide his Euclid and Archimedes and stealthily…

The parents of Michael Angelo had declared that no son of theirs should ever follow the discreditable profession of an artist, and even punished…

Schiller was sent to study surgery in the military school at Stuttgart, but in secret he produced his first play, "The Robbers," the first…

The physician Handel wished his son to become a lawyer, and so tried to discourage his fondness for music. But the boy got an old spinet and…

Daniel Defoe had been a trader, a soldier, a merchant, a secretary, a factory manager, a commissioner's accountant, an envoy, and an author of…

Erskine spent four years in the navy, and then, in the hope of more rapid promotion, joined the army. After serving more than two years, he one day,…

A. T. Stewart studied for the ministry, and became a teacher, before he drifted into his proper calling as a merchant, through the accident of having…

"Jonathan," said Mr. Chase, when his son told of having nearly fitted himself for college, "thou shalt go down to the machine-shop on Monday morning.…

It has been well said that if God should commission two angels, one to sweep a street crossing, and the other to rule an empire, they could not be…

What a ridiculous exhibition a great truck-horse would make on the race-track; yet this is no more incongruous than the popular idea that law,…

We must not jump to the conclusion that because a man has not succeeded in what he has really tried to do with all his might, he cannot succeed at…

If you fail after doing your level best, examine the work attempted, and see if it really be in the line of your bent or power of achievement. Cowper…

Very few of us, before we reach our teens, show great genius or even remarkable talent for any line of work or study. The great majority of boys…

Fidelity to the work or everyday duties at hand, and a genuine feeling of responsibility to our parents or employers, ourselves, and our God, will…

Garfield would not have become President if he had not previously been a zealous teacher, a responsible soldier, a conscientious statesman. Neither…

If instinct and heart ask for carpentry, be a carpenter; if for medicine, be a physician. With a firm choice and earnest work, a young man or woman…

The world has been very kind to many who were once known as dunces or blockheads, after they have become very successful; but it was very cross to…

Wellington was considered a dunce by his mother. At Eton he was called dull, idle, slow, and was about the last boy in school of whom anything was…

Robert Clive bore the name of "dunce" and "reprobate" at school, but at thirty-two, with three thousand men, he defeated fifty thousand at Plassey…

Young Linnaeus was called by his teachers almost a blockhead. Not finding him fit for the church, his parents sent him to college to study medicine.…

Richard B. Sheridan's mother tried in vain to teach him the most elementary studies. The mother's death aroused slumbering talents, as has happened…

Samuel Drew was one of the dullest and most listless boys in his neighborhood, yet after an accident by which he nearly lost his life, and after…

The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him in employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or…

"Every man has got a Fort," said Artemus Ward. "It's some men's fort to do one thing, and some other men's fort to do another, while there is numeris…

"I'le now rize the curtain upon seen 2nd. It is rarely seldum that I seek consolation in the Flowin Bole. But in a certain town in Injianny in the…

"Wanted.--Situation by a Practical Printer, who is competent to take charge of any department in a printing and publishing house. Would accept a…

"P. S. Will accept an offer to saw and split wood at less than the usual rates." This secured a situation at once, and the advertisement was seen…

Your talent is your _call_. Your legitimate destiny speaks in your character. If you have found your place, your occupation has the consent of…

If possible, choose that occupation which focuses the largest amount of your experience and tastes. You will then not only have a congenial vocation,…

_Follow your bent_. You cannot long fight successfully against your aspirations. Parents, friends, or misfortune may stifle and suppress the longings…

"He that hath a trade," says Franklin, "hath an estate; and he that hath a calling hath a place of profit and honor. A plowman on his legs is…

A man's business does more to make him than anything else. It hardens his muscles, strengthens his body, quickens his blood, sharpens his mind,…

Go-at-it-iveness is the first requisite for success. Stick-to-it-iveness is the second. Under ordinary circumstances, and with practical common sense…

Don't wait for a higher position or a larger salary. Enlarge the position you already occupy; put originality of method into it. Fill it as it…

When out of work, take the first respectable job that offers, heeding not the disproportion between your faculties and your task. If you put your…

This question of a right aim in life has become exceedingly perplexing in our complicated age. It is not a difficult problem to solve when one is the…

Gladstone says there is a limit to the work that can be got out of a human body, or a human brain, and he is a wise man who wastes no energy on…

"Blessed is he who has found his work," says Carlyle. "Let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work--a life purpose; he has found it, and will…

In choosing an occupation, do not ask yourself how you can make the most money or gain the most notoriety, but choose that work which will call out…

"Whoever is well educated to discharge the duty of a man," says Rousseau, "cannot be badly prepared to fill any of those offices that have relation…

George Herbert has well said: "What we are is much more to us than what we do." An aim that carries in it the least element of doubt as to its…

Madame de Staël was engrossed in political philosophy at an age when other girls are dressing dolls. Mozart, when but four years old, played the…

You have not found your place until all your faculties are roused, and your whole nature consents and approves of the work you are doing; not until…

If your vocation be only a humble one, elevate it with more manhood than others put into it. Put into it brains and heart and energy and economy.…

Go to the bottom of your business if you would climb to the top. Nothing is small which concerns your business. Master every detail. This was the…

A famous Englishman said to his nephew, "Don't choose medicine, for we have never had a murderer in our family, and the chances are that in your…

"I felt that I was in the world to do something, and thought I must," said Whittier, thus giving the secret of his great power. It is the man who…

Only a few years ago marriage was the only "sphere" open to girls, and the single woman had to face the disapproval of her friends. Lessing said:…

"Do that which is assigned you," says Emerson, "and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. There is at this moment for you an utterance brave and…

"Close application, integrity, attention to details, discreet advertising," are given as the four steps to success by John Wanamaker, whose motto is,…

Whatever you do in life, be greater than your calling. Most people look upon an occupation or calling as a mere expedient for earning a living.…

I am glad to think I am not bound to make the world go round; But only to discover and to do, With cheerful heart, the work that God appoints. JEAN…

No man struggles perpetually and victoriously against his own character; and one of the first principles of success in life is so to regulate our…

As occupations and professions have a powerful influence upon the length of human life, the youth should first ascertain whether the vocation he…

There is no employment so dangerous and destructive to life but plenty of human beings can be found to engage in it. Of all the instances that can be…

We will probably find more old men on farms than elsewhere. There are many reasons why farmers should live longer than persons residing in cities…