All great lives have been under the constraint of some mastering principle. A man
who is everything by turns and nothing long is a nobody: a man who wastes life on
whims and fancies, leisures and pleasures, never achieves anything: he flits over the
surface of life and leaves no more trace upon his age than a bird upon the sky, but a
man, even for mischief, becomes great when he becomes concentrated. 1411.243
No man ever succeeds in anything who does not give himself wholly to it: it matters
not what it is, concentration is essential to perfection in any pursuit. He who would
be eminent in any one direction must forego a great many other things which are
perfectly allowable; these he must renounce for the sake of his one object. He will not
succeed unless he sacrifices all other things to the one chief thing. 1692.662
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