Self Help

Observe that this man usually begins his conversation with some such term as this - I see by the papers, or they say. The accurate thinker knows that the newspapers are not always accurate in their reports, and he also knows that what they say usually carries more falsehood than truth. If you have not risen above the I see by the papers, and the they say class, you have still far to go before you become an accurate thinker.

Of course, much truth and many facts travel in the guise of idle gossip and newspaper reports; but the accurate thinker will not accept as such all that he sees and h ears. This is a point which I feel impelled to emphasize, for the reason that it constitutes the rocks and reefs on which so many people flounder and go down to defeat in a bottomless ocean of false conclusions

THE great Edison failed ten thousand times before he made the incandescent electric light work. Do not become discouraged and quit if you fail once or twice before making your plans work.

In the realm of legal procedure, there is a principle which is called the law of evidence; and the object of this law is to get at the facts.

Any judge can proceed with justice to all concerned, if he has the facts upon which to base his judgment, but he may play havoc with innocent people if he circumvents the law of evidence and reaches a conclusion or judgment that is based upon hearsay information.

The law of Evidence varies according to the subject and circumstances with which it is used, but you will not go far wrong if, in the absence of that which you know to be facts, you form your judgments on the hypothesis that only that part of the evidence before you which furthers your own interests without working any hardship on others is based upon facts.

This is a crucial and important point in this lesson: therefore, I wish to be sure that you do not pass it by lightly. Many a man mistakes, knowingly or otherwise, expediency for fact; doing a thing, or refraining from doing it, for the sole reason that his action furthers his own interest without consideration as to whether it interferes with the rights of others.

No matter how regrettable, it is true that most thinking of today, far from being accurate, is based upon the sole foundation of expediency.