Text of the meditation
Wisdom is the aim of every philosophy. In whatever condition a person finds themselves, they can always find the True; and they can find it only by so using their present condition as to become strong and wise. The effeminate hankering after rewards, and the craven fear of punishment, let them be put away forever, and let a person joyfully bend themselves to the faithful performance of all their duties, forgetting themselves and their worthless pleasures, and living strong and pure and self-contained; so they will surely find the Unfailing Wisdom, the God-like Patience and Strength. "The situation that has not its Duty, its Ideal, was never yet occupied by man." All that is beautiful and blessed is in yourself, not in your neighbour's wealth.
You are poor? You are poor indeed if you are not stronger than your poverty! You have suffered calamities? Tell me, will you cure calamity by adding anxiety to it? There is no evil that will not vanish if you meet it wisely. Can you mend a broken vase by weeping over it?
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.
