Right Thinking and Personality

Synopsis

Personality — the speaker's most valuable possession — is that distinctive force of self that sets one person apart and acts appreciably on those it touches. The chapter argues, quoting John Stuart Mill, that human dignity itself rests on faculties higher than animal pleasure, and that a person living by right thinking prefers his state, dissatisfied though it may be, to that of a satisfied fool. Because 'as a man thinketh in his heart so is he,' thought and heart together produce right thinking, and this is governed by the same law of cause and effect that governs the physical world: 'Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.' Character, quoted from Cato as the mark of the true orator ('a good man skilled in speaking') and from Emerson as 'nature in the highest form,' arises inevitably from habitual thought — impure thoughts cannot blossom into altruistic habits, nor can altruistic thoughts produce vicious character. Since we choose our characters by choosing our thoughts, the will must be trusted as absolutely efficient and every temptation to break a worthy resolution must be fought and won on the spot. The chapter closes with examples — Lincoln, Livingstone, Joan of Arc, and a discouraged but persistent student — showing that belief in one's ability combined with willingness to sacrifice for it is the double index to future achievement.