THE DISCONTENT THAT MEANS AMBITION
Alexander the Great lived and died discontented, but Emerson
would scarcely have attributed that gentleman's discontent to
lack of self-reliance.
Alexander was discontented, first, because he could not conquer
the whole world, and, second, because there were no others that
he could conquer. He was a vast genius, almost humorous in his
ambitious discontent sometimes--especially when he looked at the
stars and said, as alleged, that he was ashamed to look at all
those other worlds when he had barely conquered this one little
world that he lived on.
If you have in you Alexander's brand of discontent you may well
be grateful.
You are still more to be envied if you have the discontent which
has impelled thousands of great men to devote their lives
ceaselessly to the discovery of truth, working for others. ----
When Taglioni, the great ballet dancer, was a little girl, with
skinny legs and a skinnier future, being extremely homely and
with no prospects of success, she was discontented.
Other skinny-legged little ballet dancers of her class were
discontented also.
But Taglioni's discontent impelled her to spend every spare
moment whirling on her big toe, practicing her entrechat, or
laboring over the art of smiling, naturally, with aching toes,
aching back, aching thighs, and solar plexus almost exhausted
from the unnatural strain.
Pages:
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326