tulations to the man who has just been publicly honored. Presence
of mind will not desert him for a moment; he will commit no blunders. He
will avoid the necessity of meeting a former friend with whom he has
fallen out and will pass him without speaking. He will not talk of
deformities to a man who is deformed. In a word, his poise, while
leaving him free to exercise all his faculties, will give him the
opportunity to remember a thousand details, the performance as well as
the omission of which will create much sympathetic feeling toward him
among the people whom he meets.

The man who does not yet possess poise, will be wise if he follows the
recommendations we have made, that is by preparing his speeches to be
made upon entering. In those cases where he is not absolutely sure of
the relationship of people or of the condition of health of the person
to whom he is speaking, he had better avoid these topics. Silence is not
infrequently an indication of poise.

THE THOUGHT OF SUCCESS

But to emerge successfully from all these difficulties, one must believe
that one can do it, banishing absolutely from one's mind the doubt,
that, like leprosy, attacks the most well-made resolutions, transforming
them into hurtful indecision.

The mere thought, "_I will succeed_," is in itself a condition of
success. The man who pronounces these words with absolute belief implies
this sentence: "I will succeed because I will succeed and because I am
determined to employ every legitimate means to that end!"

Avoid also all grieving or melancholy over past failures, or, if you
must be occupied with them, let it be without mingling bitterness with
your regrets.

Say to yourself: "It is true. I failed in that undertaking. But from
this moment I propose to think of it merely to remind myself of the
reasons why I failed.

"I wish to analyze them sincerely, while recognizing where I was in the
wrong, so that under similar circumstances I can avoid the repetition of
the same mistakes."

Fools and knaves are the only people who complain of fate.

The words "I have no luck" should be erased altogether from the
vocabulary of the man who proposes to acquire poise.

It is the excuse in which weaklings and cowards indulge.

Timid people are always complaining of the injustice of fate, without
stopping to think that they have themselves been the direct causes of
their own failures.

The violet has often been quoted--and very improperly--a