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Cheerfulness as a Life Power

Orison Swett Marden

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1. Page ch. 1, para. 1. Copyright, 1899 By Orison Swett Marden
2. Page "A FOREWORD.", para. 1. A FOREWORD. The soul-consuming and friction-wearing tendency of this hurrying, graspi
3. Page "TABLE OF CONTENTS", para. 1. TABLE OF CONTENTS
4. Page 7. CHEERFULNESS AS A LIFE POWER.
5. Page 7. I. WHAT VANDERBILT PAID FOR TWELVE LAUGHS. William K. Vanderbilt, when he last visite
6. Page 8. The power of laughter was given us to serve a wise purpose in our economy. It is Natu
7. Page 9. is based upon principles recognized as sound by the medical profession—so literally t
8. Page 10. Dr. Ray, superintendent of Butler Hospital for the Insane, says in one of his reports
9. Page 11. It was said, by one who knew this woman well, and who wrote an account of the case fo
10. Page 12. The queen of fashion, however, says that we must never laugh out loud; but since the
11. Page 13. Merriment is a philosophy not well understood. The eminent surgeon Chavasse says that
12. Page 14. "Give me an honest laugher," said Sir Walter Scott, and he was himself one of the hap
13. Page 16. II. THE CURE FOR AMERICANITIS. Prince Wolkonsky, during a visit to this country, decl
14. Page 17. "It is not work that kills men," says Beecher; "it is worry. Work is healthy; you can
15. Page 17. Dr. Jacoby is one of the foremost of American brain doctors. "The investigations of t
16. Page 18. "The mechanical effect of worry is much the same as if the skull were laid bare and t
17. Page 19. In a life of constant worrying, we are as much behind the times as if we were to go b
18. Page 20. A clock would be of no use as a time-keeper if it should become discouraged and come
19. Page 21. "In the sudden thunder-storm of Independence Day," says a news correspondent, "we wer
20. Page 22. A newspaper correspondent, Annie Laurie, has told us all about the new kind of Americ
21. Page 23. "They are not earnest workers; they haven't the slightest idea that they were put upo
22. Page 24. 'Yes, perhaps,' he replied, 'but it is very bad for corn; I don't think we'll have ha
23. Page 25. "Why should a man whose blood is warm within Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster?
24. Page 26. "To one man," says Schopenhauer, "the world is barren, dull, and superficial; to anot
25. Page 27. "Take hoein' corn, now. If anything ever tuckered me out, 'twas hoein' corn in the ho
26. Page 28. "An', as I said before, I can't give ye any dictionary definition of optimism; but if
27. Page 29. This world was not intended for a "vale of tears," but as a sweet Vale of Content. Tr
28. Page 31. III. OILING YOUR BUSINESS MACHINERY. Business is king. We often say that cotton is ki
29. Page 32. Have you not sometimes seen a business manager whose stiffness would serve as "a good
30. Page 33. If you dislike your position, complain to no one, least of all to your employer. Fill
31. Page 34. "It is a good sign," says another writer, "when girlish voices carol over the steamin
32. Page 35. "'Do all horses down here have bells?' asked Angela. "'By no means,' replied her gran
33. Page 36. Offended by a pungent article, a gentleman called at the "Tribune" office and inquire
34. Page 37. Is it not worth while to make an effort to see the funny side of our petty annoyances
35. Page 38. "LE DIABLE EST MORT." "Courage, ami, le diable est mort!" "Courage, friend, the devil
36. Page 39. "Everything has gone," said a New York business man in despair, when he reached home.
37. Page 41. The spell was broken; Luther heartily laughed at his wife's lesson, and her ingenious
38. Page 42. IV. TAKING YOUR FUN EVERY DAY AS YOU DO YOUR WORK. Ten things are necessary for happi
39. Page 43. "Next to virtue," said Agnes Strickland, "the fun in this world is what we can least
40. Page 44. Upon every side of us are to be found what one has happily called— UNWORKED JOY MINES
41. Page 45. "I noticed," said Franklin, "a mechanic, among a number of others, at work on a house
42. Page 47. The woman who has what Helen Hunt so aptly called "a genius for affection,"—she, inde
43. Page 48. "Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones." It is
44. Page 49. "And when the minister said how the children would miss their mother, seemed as thoug
45. Page 50. "How beautiful would our home-life be if every little child at the bed-time hour coul
46. Page 51. V. FINDING WHAT YOU DO NOT SEEK. Dining one day with Baron James Rothschild, Eugene D
47. Page 52. It illustrates, too, what was said by Wilhelm von Humboldt, that "it is worthy of spe
48. Page 53. "One's personal enjoyment is a very small thing, but one's personal usefulness is a v
49. Page 54. John Buskin inherited a million dollars. "With this money he set about doing good," s
50. Page 55. No man in England had a better time than did Du Maurier on that cold day when he took
51. Page 55. HIS HEAD IN A HOLE. "I was appointed to lecture in a town in Great Britain six miles
52. Page 57. He indeed is getting the most out of life who does most to elevate mankind. How happy
53. Page 58. Sydney Smith recommends us to make at least one person happy every day: "Take ten yea
54. Page 59. "Happiness," says one writer, "is a mosaic, composed of many smaller stones." It is t
55. Page 60. "What is your father's name?" he asked. She told him; and then with an encouraging sm
56. Page 61. And what better can be said than to compare the heart's good cheer to a floral offeri
57. Page 62. "When a man does not find repose in himself," says a French proverb, "it is vain for
58. Page 64. VI. "LOOKING PLEASANT"—SOMETHING TO BE WORKED FROM THE INSIDE. Acting on a sudden imp
59. Page 65. Approaching the little mirror above her bureau, she said, "Brighten up, Catherine," a
60. Page 66. "I cannot but think," says Sir John Lubbock, "that the world would be better and brig
61. Page 67. Children should be taught the habit of finding pleasure everywhere; and to see the br
62. Page 68. If you are not at the moment cheerful,—look, speak, act, as if you were. "You know I
63. Page 69. "Slowly the peevish, discontented woman turned over the book her friend brought her,
64. Page 71. "Cheerfulness," says Ruskin, "is as natural to the heart of a man in strong health as
65. Page 72. "Talk happiness. The world is sad enough Without your woes. No path is wholly rough;
66. Page 73. VII. THE SUNSHINE-MAN. "There's the dearest little old gentleman," says James Buckham
67. Page 74. "He was quiet, cheerful, genial," says Carlyle in his "Reminiscences" concerning Edwa
68. Page 75. "It is the unqualified result of all my experience with the sick," said Florence Nigh
69. Page 76. "Nothing will supply the want of sunshine to peaches," said Emerson, "and to make kno
70. Page 77. "This is a dark world to many people," says a suggestive modern writer, "a world of c
71. Page 78. It was N. P. Willis, I think, who added to the beatitudes—"Blessed are the joy-makers
72. Page 79. Was it not Goethe who represented a journey that followed the sunshine round the worl