Firmness

A strong, bold, determined, energetic nature, must and does conquer events, and make life and all that surrounds it slaves to its own will. And when I hear men and women lament their fate, I often draw down their indignation by turning the balance, and showing them how, by their own want of nerve and muscle of character, they have made their misfortune heavier, or transformed, what in other hands had proved a blessing, by weakness into a curse. O, above all, would I inculcate upon people these words—make your decision firmly, act promptly, and never look back to regret impossibilities, and waste a life so valuable and precious in re-arranging the past, and in futile reveries over a now impossible condition.