John Neal

"Good voyages are made both ways. A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with the wind. Even a head wind is better than nothing, No man ever worked his voyage any where, in a dead calm. The best wind for every thing, in the long run, is a side wind. If it blows right aft, how is he to get back? Let no man wax pale, therefore, because of opposition. Opposition is what he wants, and must have, to be good for any thing. Hardship is the native soil of manhood and self-reliance. He that cannot abide the storm, without flinching or quailing — strips himself in the sunshine, and lies down by the wayside, to be overlooked and forgotten. He who but braces himself to the struggle when the winds blow — gives up, when they have done, and falls asleep in the stillness that follows. Did you ever know any body stick to any kind of business, no matter how unpromising, ten years at most, who did not prosper? Not one! no matter how bad it might be at the beginning — if he stuck to it earnestly and faithfully, and tried no thing else — no matter how hard he may have found it sometimes to keep his head above water — still, if he persevered, he always came out bright in the end — didn't he?"