“Benedictines”
Compiled from the
Newspaper Writings, Books
Lectures and Lessons
Of
ELSIE LINCOLN BENEDICT
Thanks are extended to the following newspapers for the privilege of re-printing these little epigrams, most of which were published first in their pages:
THE EVENING MAIL, of New York City, U.S.A
THE HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN, of Hawaiian Islands.
THE DAILY PICTORIAL, of Sydney, Australia, the latter of which gave them the name “Benedictines.”
To earn more, learn more.
No man is a success who profits only by the failures of others, or who fails to profit by his own.
He who believes the world owes him a living does not even get busy enough to collect it.
No man alive is “dead safe”. We are only safe, dead.
The only thing that can break out on your face and improve it, is a smile.
Life is a grindstone, and whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on the stuff we are made of.
Learn to disagree without being disagreeable.
It is much easier to make a good impression than to remake a bad one.
The man whose head is turned naturally goes the wrong way.
What we see, in any situation, depends upon what we see with.
The most expensive illness in the world is a fit – of anger.
To improve your own lot in life, improve your own life a lot.
Those who pursue pleasure fastest are the slowest to catch up with her.
People who find excuses for others seldom need any for themselves.
The closed mind, like the closed fist, repels help.
The moment a man recognizes he is ignorant he begins to be wise.
Those who do not know happiness on a mite would not know it on a million.
Nothing wonderful can happen to a fool.
He who teaches his child to live on small means leaves him a fortune.
Humans, like horses, cannot kick and go forward at the same time.
It takes two to make a quarrel, but one can end it.
He seeks repose in vain who lacks it in himself.
The man who goes through life looking for something soft can find it – right under his hat.
A stumbling-block is a stepping stone we’ve tripped over.
The sound of someone saying a thing can’t be done is usually interrupted, these days, by the sound of someone doing it.
Contrary winds lift both kites and true courage higher.
Minds, like metals, grow brighter from frequent use.
Even a frog knows that he who’d make progress must hop to it.
Don’t copy others. Make your own impression. Failing to do justice to others always does an injustice to ourselves.
Let’s not punish our children for the faults we taught them.
Work heals, worry kills.
Not the changing times, but unchanging methods cause most business failures.
Think less about your ancestors and more about what kind of an ancestor you are becoming.
The best university is still adversity.
The “smooth” man usually has a rough time of it.
When love’s fire dies, don’t dress yourself up in its ashes.
“Finishing” schools are well named.
To get ahead, get – a head.
True love makes no demands.
When you really make up your mind to do a thing, God will not stop you, and no one else can.
It is economy, not extravagance, to buy whatever costs more to do without than to get.
Count every mistake as one less you’ll have to make before you learn.
Change your mind and you change your life.
The way the world treats me is the effect – I am the cause.
“Luck” is the visible effect of invisible causes; therefore not luck at all, but LAW.
The thoughts of today make the dreams of tonight, the acts of tomorrow, the facts of the future.
You cannot succeed greatly with any work you cannot play with.
The fastest-traveling thing in the world should be the slowest: bad news.
Most people stuff their stomachs and starve their souls.
Settle with your neighbor for a small sum, or with your lawyer for a large.
Every cradle may be the nest of destiny.
You can’t go wrong, doing right.
Be willing to pay for what you get, and you will get what you pay for.
Hating means hurting – yourself.
Those who enjoy poor health complain when they feel better.
College degrees usually remove a man just that many from humanness.
Money, the one thing we try hardest to get, is the one thing which brings us nothing until we get rid of it.
Bury the past, and don’t visit its grave.
To rise in your line, learn how to do your work; to rise in your life, learn also why.
Better trust everybody than nobody.
Smilers are seldom sick – and the healthiest people in every circus are its clowns.
We measure ourselves by our fall-downs, but the world measures us only by our get-ups.
An inflated ego is sure to get a man “all up in the air”.
When a man cannot get a grip on himself, someone else soon will.
Resting on one’s laurels always crushes them.
There is no shame in not reaching perfection, but there is in not stretching for it.
Fear has made many a good man good for nothing.
We don’t “grow old”; we get old because we cease to grow.
Develop an outgoing, not an ingrowing disposition. The purity of the stream of consciousness, like that of every other, is dependent upon having as much outlet as intake.
The man who complains worst in the worst times, does least good in the good times.
Do you fill your position or only occupy it?
Take the “I’s” out of “grins” and the “o’s” out of “groans”, and they no longer differ much.
If you want people to believe in you, you must set them the example.
Disappointment weakens the weakling, but strengthens the strong.
Let Worry in as your visitor and he becomes your master.
We show up best when we show off least.
He, who under no circumstances stoops to self-pity, will rise to circumstances above any reason for it.
You have the key to the door of Opportunity right in your pocket!
Bring more out of yourself and you will soon bring more out of your pay-envelope.
Specialize! Anything spread too thin becomes flat.
How far you have gone is of much less importance than the direction in which you are headed.
The opportunity always comes – when you are ready for it.
The only riches of which we can never be robbed are those deposited in the mind.
The one most necessary ingredient to put into anything is ourself.
Acting without thinking is like shooting without aiming.
Before you find fault, find a remedy.
The truest greatness is kindness.
Develop and polish yourself, else, like the small diamond, you will be used to polish others.
Unless we settle on a high aim, a low one settles in us.
The motto of the masters: “DO IT NOW!”
An enemy is the most expensive luxury in the world.
The Valley of Despair, like every other, is never so deep or dark but that we can see out if we will look up.
Be true. In every relationship an ounce of loyalty is worth a ton of cleverness.
Don’t gossip when you’re gossiped to, and you won’t be gossiped about.
Have fewer and deeper interests. A man’s power, like that of a river, is increased by narrowing and deepening the channel, and always decreased by widening it.
What we get ready for, we get.
Pay little attention to others’ business, or your own business will pay so little that others will pay little attention to you.
If you do not live to learn, you will never learn to live.
Both love and hate are half-blind – one seeing only the good and the other only the bad in us.
The first step toward becoming rich is being born poor.
Little troubles of our own look larger than the big ones of other people, only because our own are so much closer to us.
The best way to kill time is to work it to death.
Jealousy is the accompaniment of love – of self.
If you have never failed, you are not ready for success.
The man who does little else than what his pay calls for will have little pay to call for.
Don’t be merely good. Be good for something.
The man who is not generous when poor would not be if he had a fortune.
To do big things, do without some of the little ones.
Difficulties cause few failures; discouragements many.
Get into top gear; when we are working too hard at a thing we are never doing it well.
He who angers you masters you.
Boasting of one’s position proves it is too large for him.
In the long run, most of us are helped more by “bad” times than by good, because we learn more then.
Don’t be penurious. ‘Tis better to live rich and die poor, than live poor and die rich.
Learn to creep before you try to run – but don’t stop there.
Few wise men have been learned, and few of the learned wise.
Crooks do not whistle at their work.
Listen most when a man tells you your faults and least when he talks of your virtues.
Be often disgusted with yourself, but never discouraged.
The one thing that means the same in every language is a smile.
The conceit which puffs a man up always pulls him down.
It takes bigness to see bigness; greatness to appreciate greatness.
Experience is costly, but, if applied, always brings a profit.
The good in you is the god in you.
Never fear menial work, nor those who “look down” on it. The only thing that can lower you is your own character.
When you make up your mind, make up your mind that your mind is made up.
No man ever came to the front who was always willing to take a back seat.
Go after things, and things will come your way.
Being “blue” or “in the pink” is dependent mostly on the kind of mental goggles we wear.
When you think you cannot do a thing you are right – as long as you think it.
The poorest fish is sel-fish.
The man who watches the watch’s hands will never do anything with his own to make the world watch him.
To make your dreams come true, wake up!
Run from trouble and it catches you; face it, and it runs away.
Learn to earn things with the things you learn. Money is only so much paper and metal – til we use it.
Faultfinders never becomes pathfinders.
Life is like a bank. We get out what we put in, with interest added.
Ruts are the graves of the unburied “dead ones”.
The swell-head germ grows fastest in vacant ground.
He who most loves rest should give himself the hardest labor, since rest is only in proportion to it
Many men whom Failure could not hurt are ruined by Success.
Some so-called “open minds” should be closed for repairs.
It’s never the man pulling on both oars who rocks the boat.
If you look at “promotion” you will note that two-thirds of it is motion.
Be not too soft. You can’t drive nails with a cushion!
Better be bent by toil than crooked from trying to avoid it.
A “blue” workman is worse than a “green” one.
Learn to drive your life’s car, and rough roads will not worry you.
More people die of too much food these days than of famine.
Most people are half-awake all night and half-asleep all day.
All excuses are lame – which is why they never carry us far.
If you’re above hard work when you’re young, you’ll be beneath it when you’re old.
Keep up your enthusiasms. Like airplanes, we begin to drop the minute our propelling power ceases
Instead of re-creation, most people make it “wreck”-reation.
Those forced constantly to swallow their pride, usually develop mental indigestion.
In men, as in motors, only self-starters are in demand.
Don’t expect to go high in the world without preparation, for men are like skyscrapers: the height to which they can rise depends upon the depths of their foundations.
Resist the temptation to show your brilliance by sarcasm; many a man’s cleverness at throwing verbal missiles has led to his dismissal.
Men, like machines, wear out less from heavy loads than from friction.
To really help another, help him help himself.
The cleverest lie in the world is still stupid.
Find your right work. Toiling too long with our small abilities means spoiling the chance with our big ones.
The man who spites another bites himself.
Do not take Greed’s advice for high interest, or you will lose your capital.
Careless remarks cause care.
The best-educated people have always been the self-educated.
Watch your weaknesses. Human chains, like all others, are no stronger than their weakest link.
Many husbands keep their noses to the grindstone that their wives may turn theirs up at the neighbors.
It is a mistake to suppose that only the intelligent have definite opinions. The most positive and unchanging of all opinions are held by the ignorant.
Happiness does not depend so much upon how much we have as upon how much we can appreciate.
Others may put you down, but no one except yourself can keep you there.
The finger of suspicion always turns back towards its owner.
The man who is going straight always knows the next step to take.
Country clubs, golf links, and bridge tables do not produce philosophers.
Indolence is a close relative of every sin in the world.
Love brings self-effacement; jealousy self-defacement.
Do a little good to others with what you have or what you have will do you little good.
He who has implicit faith in his own religion does not ridicule the religious faith of others.
Trouble-hunters always come home with a full catch.
Mental Equipment is our engine, but Mental Attitude operate the throttle.
Express as well as absorb knowledge, or you will develop mental auto-intoxication.
We may not always find just the good thing we are looking for, but we will never find anything good unless we are looking in its direction.
If one’s business does not enrich his character as much as his cash-box, its profits will not profit him much.
Keep something to yourself. The man who tells all he knows tells more than he knows.
Give your tongue too much liberty and it will take you prisoner.
Pretense is never worth what it costs.
Do not fear to outgrow things. Men, like trees, always find an atmosphere suited to them, no matter to what heights they have risen.
No man calls this a bad world who is doing his share toward making it a good one.
Most people have two reasons for doing as they please – a perfectly good one, and the real one.
Happiness is a perishable fruit, which must be used each day, for it will not keep.
The only perfect revenge is forgetting – just as the highest compliment is remembering.
Jealousy is self-aggrandisement; love self-forgetfulness.
We take the ell out of “learning” which soon turns it to “earning”.
Many a man who knew nothing to say has been credited with being very wise because he said just that.
Why bluff, when it’s only the way we show up at the showdown that counts?
We cannot change our features (which are unimportant), but we can change our expression (which is all-important).
Develop your mights and your rights will take care of themselves.
Let’s not be so busy making a living that we fail to make a life.
The man who starts being sorry for himself ends by having reason to be.
There is magic in sincerity.
