I have for instance, had the luck to live in the most interesting evolutionary epoch in the world's history, with its rapid development of motor-cars, aeroplanes, wireless, Tutankhamen, the Great War and World convulsion, and so on. Then, too, I have met with a remarkable amount of kindness everywhere, not only from friends but from strangers as well. That doesn't mean that I have not had difficulties and trials to face, but these have been the salt that savoured the feast. For these I have found that a smile and a stick will carry you through all right, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it is the smile that does the trick. An awful lot of men fail through lack of patient persistence.
Most men sleep for eight hours when seven are sufficient.
The man who sleeps for seven hours gains an additional three years and over, of waking life. I have found it a good plan to give oneself, in imagination, three years still to live. You then feel that you have got to get things done within that time, whether they are making big dreams come true, or winning happiness. Time must not be frittered away. Young men, of course, don't want to be guided by old back numbers, but at the same time I know that in my own case I gained a lot by studying the characters of the chiefs under whom I served from time to time.