December 1

“When you are examining yourself, never call yourself a ‘sinner’, that is very cheap abuse and utterly useless. Call yourself a liar, a coward, a sluggard, a glutton, and so on, if you indeed find yourself to be in any wise any of these. Take steady means to check yourself in whatever fault you have ascertained and justly accused yourself of. And as soon as you are in active way of mending, you will be no more inclined to moan over an undefined corruption. For the rest, you will find it less easy to uproot faults than to choke them by gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults, still less of other people's faults; in every person who comes near you, look for what is good and strong; honour that; rejoice in it; and as you can, try to imitate it; and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.”

RUSKIN

“We are wrong always when we think too much
Of what we think or are.”

E. B. BROWNING