wunder · Library

Part 1

Thoughts I Met on the Highway: Words of Friendly Cheer From "the Life Books" · Ralph Waldo Trine — chapter 1 of 7 · ~551 words · public domain

Read in the Wunder reader — free

Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Thoughts I Met On the Highway

Words Of Friendly Cheer From "The Life Books"

By Ralph Waldo Trine

New York Dodd, Mead & Company 1919

Copyright 1912 By Ralph Waldo Trine

* * * * *

BY RALPH WALDO TRINE

"The Life Books"

IN THE HOLLOW OF HIS HAND THE NEW ALINEMENT OF LIFE THE LAND OF LIVING MEN WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING IN TUNE WITH THE INFINITE; or Fullness of Peace, Power and Plenty THE HIGHER POWERS OF MIND AND SPIRIT. THIS MYSTICAL LIFE OF OURS A volume of selections for each week through the year, from the Author's complete works.

The "Life" Booklets

ON THE OPEN ROAD THOUGHTS I MET ON THE HIGHWAY THE WINNING OF THE BEST THE GREATEST THING EVER KNOWN EVERY LIVING CREATURE CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER

DODD, MEAD & COMPANY NEW YORK

* * * * *

Thoughts are forces--like builds like and like attracts like. Thoughts of strength both build strength from within and attract it from without. Thoughts of weakness actualize weakness from within and attract it from without. Courage begets strength, fear begets weakness. And so courage begets success, fear begets failure.

* * * * *

Any way the old world goes Happy be the weather! With the red thorn or the rose Singin' all together! Don't you see that sky o' blue! Good Lord painted it for you

Reap the daisies in the dew Singin' all together! Springtime sweet, an' frosty fall Happy be the weather! Earth has gardens for us all, Goin' on together.

Sweet the labor in the light, To the harvest's gold and white-- Till the toilers say "Good night," Singin' all together!

* * * * *

There is no quality that exerts more good, is of greater service to all mankind during the course of the ordinary life, than the mind and the heart that goes out in an all-embracing love for all, that is the generator and the circulator of a genuine, hearty, wholesome sympathy and courage and good cheer, that is not disturbed or upset by the passing occurrence little or great, but that is serene, tranquil, and conquering to the end, that is looking for the best, that is finding the best, and that is inspiring the best in all. There is moreover, no quality that when genuine brings such rich returns to its possessor by virtue of the thoughts and the feelings that it inspires and calls forth from others and that come back laden with their peaceful, stimulating, healthful influences for you.

* * * * *

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeoning of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate How charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

William Earnest Henley

* * * * *

All chaptersNext chapter →

Thoughts I Met on the Highway: Words of Friendly Cheer From "the Life Books" · The Wunder Library — complete classics, free to read, with narration.

© 2026 Wunder Learning LLC · Terms & Privacy