On Being Wrong and Admitting It   September 29, 1946

THERE is an ancient but ageless statement accredited to Aristotle which says that “Some men are just as firmly convinced of what they think as others are of what they know.”13 Perhaps we...

On Belonging to a Family   February 19, 1956

One of the very wonderful things of life is a sense of belonging. And one of the most wonderful things to belong to is a loyal and affectionate family—a family who have each their own individual...

On Calling Evil by Its Right Name   November 3, 1946

ALL THIS may have been long ago, and it may not have been just as it now appears to have been_but we seem to have remembered or to have read of a time when the demarcation between good and evil was...

On Coming to Accountability   June 15, 1947

There are times in the lives of all of us when someone has to see that we do what we should do, and that we don’t do what we shouldn’t do. In our early years we become accustomed to...

On Coming to Accountability   June 5, 1955

On Coming Too Close…   July 19, 1953

We remember as youngsters that there was much magic in a magnet ⎯ as carefully we would push nails toward it, or other objects of iron, to see at just what point its pull would snap the approaching...

On Desensitizing Ourselves   August 28, 1960

No matter where we are or who we are or what we are or how much help we have, we have to do some part of the solving of our problems for ourselves. We have to have the will and the willingness...

On Doing a Good Thing Without Being Told   September 22, 1946

IT IS a source of sincere satisfaction to any parent to have a child who knows how to receive instructions and how to carry them out; to have a son or a daughter who does precisely what he is told...

On Dragging Others Down…   September 14, 1969

In our concern for restlessness and lawlessness and looseness we need perhaps to search ourselves, remembering that any letting down in example or in attitude on the part of any parent or teacher,...

On Edge   December 16, 1951

Altogether too many of us our living on edge. The symptoms of the pressure and impatience are all around us. And as parents perhaps we often lose our tempers and jump at our children and say things...

On Escaping Penalties   October 14, 1945

Frequently the question is asked: Just how effective is the threat of punishment in keeping men from doing things they should not do? To this, we must frankly answer that often the mere threat of...

On Escaping Penalties   October 23, 1949

On Facing Life as It Is   December 9, 1945

Sometimes in looking at the lives of others, we may suppose that there are those who lead an untroubled existencefree from the heartaches, free from the reverses, free from the causes for worry and...

On Facing Life as It Is   February 6, 1949

On Feeling Sorry for Ourselves   June 15, 1952

A little less than a century ago Emerson offered this observation: “These times of ours are serious and full of calamity, but all times are essentially alike.” The statement may seem...

On Following the Crowd   April 20, 1941

The beginning of a new year is conceded to be a good time to look critically at some of the factors that make up our lives, at some of the things we do, and at some of the thinking, both true and...

On Foretelling Things to Come   November 5, 1944

Men, it would seem, have in common an urgent desire to know more about the future⎯a desire which demonstrates itself in many ways, and for many reasons. In some respects and to some extent the...

On Getting Along With People   August 11, 1946

One of the most important things in life is learning to get along with the people we have to live with. The question of peace itself—at home and worldwide—revolves around our being able to do just...

On Getting Away From Ourselves   November 25, 1945

For those who are old in years, the past seems to become sharper in memory, and many things which we thought had been obliterated have proved but to be stored away, only waiting to be recalled. For...

On Getting What We Ask For…   July 11, 1954

No doubt we have all observed children who insist on having something they see right now—something they have their hearts set upon. And for the moment life seems very unhappy if they can’t...