Precept and Practice – JUNE 16 – Self-pity

Pity may rightfully be exercised in any direction save one:  toward self.   Pity is said to be akin to love, and we are to love all men, even our enemies;  but we are not to love self.   A prominent statesman and sound counsellor of young men has said:  ‘Never pity yourself. Self-pity begins a sickness of the soul from which few recover.’   Probably we have all dabbled in self-pity enough to know something of its enervating, poisonous effects.   It is to the moral system what influenza is to the physical, in its insidious power to impair vital organs and sometimes to wreck everything.    For when we begin to pity ourselves we dwell upon the things in our life that seem to us unjust and undeserved;  and no man ever bettered his condition by concentrating his mind on his injustices.   The way to get well is to get your mind off your disease.   The way to forge ahead in life is to think of your opportunity and privilege, not your handicap.   When we do that we shall not have time for self-pity.   Don’t you go and get sorry for yourself.   That’s one thing I can’t stand in anybody.   There’s always lots of people you kin be sorry for instead of yourself.

Alice Hegan Rice (Lovely Mary)

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW