The practice of such commonplace philosophy (which, to be effective, should
be ready for immediate use, not stored away for later reflection), together
with training against faulty mental states studied in these pages, will
go far toward relieving the mental perturbation that unfits for effective
work, and contributes to "neurasthenia."

During an hour's delay, caused by the failure of another to keep an
appointment, I formulated the following maxim:

"These are the annoyances incident to my business; to fret when they occur
means that I cannot manage my business without friction."

This may not appeal to the reader, but for me it has proved as good an
hour's work as I ever did. Since that time, on the occurrence of similar
sources of provocation, I have found it necessary to go no farther than
"These are the annoyances," to restore the needful balance. When we allow
our gorge to rise at ordinary sources of discomfort, it implies that we
are prepared only for our affairs to run with perfect smoothness. This
represents the insistent idea carried to an absurdity.

At the risk of losing caste with the critical I cannot forbear sharing with
the reader an inelegant maxim which has more than once prevented an access
of rage upon the blunder of a subordinate: "If he had our brains he'd have
our job."

Spinoza says: "The powerlessness of man to govern and restrain his emotions
I call servitude. For a man who is controlled by his emotions is not his
own master but is mastered by fortune, under whose power he is often
compelled, though he sees the better, to follow the worse." The same