Every industrious man, in every lawful calling, is a useful man. And one principal reason why men are so often useless is that they neglect their own profession or calling, and divide and shift their attention among a multiplicity of objects and pursuits.
Interpretation
Focusing on one's own profession leads to greater usefulness and success.
Ralph Waldo Emerson emphasizes the importance of dedication and focus in one's work. He argues that industrious individuals who commit to their lawful callings contribute meaningfully to society, while those who scatter their attention across too many interests often fail to achieve their potential and become less useful.
In practice
During a team meeting, you might share this quote to emphasize the importance of concentrating on assigned tasks.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself.
If you hear how wonderful you are often enough, you begin to believe it, no matter how you try to resist it.
Thus, when the lamp that lighted The traveller at first goes out, He feels awhile benighted, And looks around in fear and doubt. But soon, the prospect clearing, By cloudless starlight on he treads, And thinks no lamp so cheering As that light which Heaven sheds.
Believing that other people are always better than you-better-looking, more capable, richer, more intelligent-and that it's very dangerous to step outside your own limits, so it's best to do nothing.
To get back one's youth one has merely to repeat one's follies.
If we have built on the fragile cornerstones of human wisdom, pride, and conditional love, things may look good for a while, but a weak foundation causes collapse when storms hit.
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