It often turns out that our apparent successes are really our undoing.
Croake James tells this incident:
I was mightily delighted with the whim I was shown on a sign
at a village not far from this capital, tho it is too serious
a truth to excite one’s risibility. On one side is painted a
man stark naked, with this motto: “I am the man who went to law
and lost my cause.” On the reverse is a fellow all in tatters,
looking most dismally with this motto: “I am the man who went to
law and won my cause.” (Text.)--“Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”
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* * * * *
A Nebraska woman won a prize of $250 for this essay on “What
Constitutes Success,” written in competition with many others:
He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and
loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and
the love of little children; who has filled his niche and
accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he
found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem or a
rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth’s
beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the
best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an
inspiration; whose memory a benediction.
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