Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good
Set down nothing that will not help somebody
Don’t hang a dismal picture on the wall, and do not daub with sables and glooms in your conversation. Don’t be a cynic and disconsolate preacher. Don’t bewail and bemoan. Omit the negative propositions. Nerve us with incessant affirmatives. Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. When that is spoken which has a right to be spoken, the chatter and the criticism will stop. Set down nothing that will not help somebody; –
” For every gift of noble origin
Is breathed upon by Hope’s perpetual breath.”
William Wordsworthby Ralph Waldo Emerson
(May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882)
from Society and Solitude
image – tibchris
June 13th, 2010 at 2:51 am
One of your finest yet, Elizabeth. And a good mantra to keep on ones emotional wall, quite apart from the real one. Makes one think though of all the poets who have daubed with “sables and glooms” (love that one, so poetic) and yet brightened our world. Authors too. But they were not our fellow conversationists, just our muses. I love Wordsworth, and what he says of hope is so true, Hope does have a “perpetual breath”. Please give me the link for this one, so I can spread some of the sunshine. Thank you.
June 14th, 2010 at 6:16 am
Thanks, Clarissa. Emerson isn’t quite eternal, yet, but he’s working up to it. There’s always more to find in there, and he wrote a lot!