This I Believe

Those certain fundamentals have withstood the test of time, the general pattern of my life has been one of change. I have formed convictions and strong beliefs and arranged them in the order of their supposed importance, only to find that the added experience of a few years has changed my perspective and caused me to modify my valuations.

In the earlier years of my childhood, my parents were infallible. At sixteen or seventeen, it was I who needed no advice. At twenty-five, I looked back on this latter period and wondered how I could have given high rank to things so unimportant. At thirty-five, I regretted that I could not have been more mature at twenty-five. At fifty it was difficult for me to understand why things I could then see so clearly were not visible at thirty-five. Yet at each period, I felt quite certain of my judgment and my appraisals.

What then do I finally believe to be of top importance as I near the close of my activities? I hesitate to impose my personal thoughts and experience upon others, but it is within the boundaries of such personal matters that my fundamental beliefs are to be found. In retrospect, I see my parents. They were Christian people, poor in things tangible but rich in understanding and contentment.

In simple language, my mother taught her children that the present is a preparatory life. Always she emphasized the prime requisite of character and of right living. “These,” she said, “would be the foundation of self-respect, of accomplishment and happiness as life unfolded, and of satisfaction as it neared its close.”

My father’s time was very occupied and his teaching was largely by example. When I left the village where I was born, my father expressed regret that I would likely never have robust health, that I was lacking in formal education, and that I was without capital. He reminded me, though, that my day would equal the day of any other man in the number of its hours. “If these were wisely used,” he said, “and I could build a record of being industrious, attentive to duty, and always dependable—all matters within my own control—he would feel assured as to my future.”

My parents felt sure that character, dependability, and a willingness to learn and work, would overcome most obstacles in life. The training I had received was simple, but it did not fail me. It was only when, at times, I made some other belief a matter of first importance that disappointments accrued.

I am now at the evening of my life—an active business life with its lights and shadows, its encouragements and its disappointments. I have had my shortcomings, but I like to believe that the scales are not weighted too heavily against me. I have heard it said that present-day life is so complex that the guiding rules of another day would be insufficient now. I am not impressed by either that premise or conclusion.

There are basic rules of human conduct that have stood the test of the ages, and fundamental truths never lose their force. That one finally may look back with satisfaction and forward with no misgiving, right living in its ethical and spiritual sense is always first in importance. This I believe.