Here is a quotation from a very wise person called Aristotle.
This Greek philosopher was the teacher of Alexander the Great,
and incidentally he has been the teacher of millions of men since
he began to talk philosophy, more than twenty centuries ago.
"First of all, we must observe that in all these matters of
human action the too little and the too much are alike ruinous,
as we can see (to illustrate the spiritual by the natural)
in the case of strength and health. Too much and too little
exercise alike impair the strength, and too much meat and drink
and too little both alike destroy the health, but the fitting
amount produces and preserves them.... So, too, the man who
takes his fill of every pleasure and abstains from none becomes a
profligate; while he who shuns all becomes stolid and
insusceptible."
The next time you fall into a philosophical mood, and begin
reviewing the causes of your troubles, see if you can't find some
useful suggestion in the common-sense statement of Aristotle we
give today.
How about the "too much" of one thing and "too little" of
another?
Are you quite sure that you don't do too much talking and too
little thinking?
Are you sure that you don't do too much drinking and playing and
idling, and too little reading?
Are you sure that you don't do too much of things you like that
do you no good, and too little of things that you ought to like,
and that would help you to succeed? ----
We believe that every one of our readers has some friend or
brother or son who can be really helped by the reading of this
quotation from the old Greek wise man.
You can state to any young man or woman to whom you send this
advice that the man who gave it formed the character and judgment
of Alexander, the world's most successful young man.