Harry Emerson Fosdick has explained an important
fact of life as follows:
“No steam or gas ever drives anything until it
is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into
light and power until it is tunnelled. No life
ever grows until it is focused, dedicated,
disciplined.” (Living Under Tension, by Harry
Emerson Fosdick)
There is but one law of nature, which applies to
both animate and inanimate objects. It is that there
is a price to be paid for every end in life: without
paying that price, nothing can be achieved.
In this world one has to sink before one can rise;
one has to resign oneself to loss before one can gain,
to backwardness before one can advance; one has to
be able to accept defeat before one can claim
victory.
The world in which man lives has been created by
God, not by man himself. This may appear to be a
simple fact, but it is one that man usually forgets in
his everyday life. Since we are living in God’s
world, we have no alternative but to understand
His laws, and follow them. There is no other way
we can make a place for ourselves in the world.
Those who wish to advance and be successful in life
without passing through the necessary stages, will
have to build another world for themselves—one
which satisfies their own requirements; for in the
world that God has created, their dreams can never
come true.
Ref - The Moral Vision
- by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
