Swearing is a great waste of time. Stop the leak in the kettle.
This kettle is an hour with sixty drops of time in it. If there
is a leak in the kettle the little drops of time will be lost.
Sixty drops and the hour-kettle is empty. Swearing is a bad
habit and will surely wear a hole in the kettle. It is difficult
to swear without getting angry. Sometimes the kettle is emptied
before the hole is made. How? Anger starts the kettle boiling
and time runs over and is lost. Swearing is a great waste of
time! In sixty minutes of temper an hour has run over.--J.
M. FARRAR.
(3139)
* * * * *
Wednesday, April 27, was Grant’s birthday. Some one told the
following interesting story about him: “While sitting with him
at the camp-fire late one night, after every one else had gone
to bed, I said to him: ‘General, it seems singular that you
have gone through all the trouble of army service and frontier
life and have never been provoked into swearing. I have never
heard you utter an oath or use an imprecation.’
“‘Well, somehow or other, I never learned to swear,’ he replied.
‘When a boy I seemed to have an aversion to it, and when I
became a man I saw the folly of it. I have always noticed, too,
that swearing helps to arouse a man’s anger; and when a man
flies into a passion, his adversary, who keeps cool, always
gets the better of him. In fact, I never could see the use of
swearing. I think it is the case with many people who swear
excessively that it is a mere habit, and that they do not mean
to be profane; but, to say the least, it is a great waste of
time.’”--J. M. FARRAR.
(3140)