From Dr. Frank Crane's book, Just Human.


"Why not discuss the subject?

It is the most fundamental idea in every human being's mind. Your notion of what God is, or whether He exists at all or not, has probably more to do with your life than any other notion.

Any yet, be a strange perversity, civilized people seem to have agreed not to talk about God. 

It is good taste to speak of wind and water, events and accidents, and you may even mention the Evil One, but not out Creator. Why?

Because the matter is too sacred? 
A very good reason; provided we do not make is so sacred, and bury it so deep, that we forget it entirely.

Perhaps there are some readers whose idea of God is not sealed and settles, and who would like a few hints. 
Them I will tell who and what God is.

He is the idea that lies underneath all other ideas.
All your aspirations mount upward; the point where they meet is God.
God is the hidden spirit that lurks in that strongest word in language--Ought.
Only the soul that does not feel that word is the real infidel.
Hence God is at the bottom of all ordered society; for men cannot live together in peace unless they agree upon their basic responsibilities.

This is why Plutarch said: "It is easier to build a city in the air than to construct a society without a belief in God."

Aristotle said: "What the pilot is to the ship, what the driver is in the chariot, what the preceptor is in the chorus, what the law is in the state, and what the general is in the war, this God is in the world."

He is that disposing Mind that sits in the circle of the heavens and manages the universe.

He is also within each consciousness. (Prope Dues est, tecum est, intus est--God is with thee, and inside thee -- Seneca.)

He is that invisible Person who is the standard of goodness. 
He is what every man feels he himself ought to be like. Hence He is the Judge of all men.
He is the one Force, of which all so-called forces of Nature are but various expressions.
He is the Father, of whom we are all children.

He is the one Thought, without which all our other thoughts are in confusion. He is the essential Order of all things. 

He is what Nature means. ("the voice of all Nature cries out that there is a God." --Voltaire.)

He is the source of the satisfaction we feel in doing right and the terror and shame we feel in doing wrong.

He is known to children and wise men, and only denied by those who have learned too much to the one and not enough to be the other. "A little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth of philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." --Bacon.

He is that refuge to whom the heart of man turns when no other refuge is to be found. 

'The Melody," says Mr. Delisle Burns (Old Creeds and New Faith), "The melody which is in all the notes and chords, which does not exist except when the passage is played, and yet which is not merely the separate notes --that is God."

But one of the most charming expressions is that of Dumas the younger: "God is not taught, He is divined; He is not a lesson, He is a necessity. Unintelligible to our senses, He is not so to our heart, and our mouth cannot define Him. To love Him is to explain Him.""

This is one of my all-time favorites. enjoy :)


It Takes Grit by Dr. Frank Crane:


"It takes Grit to do anything worth doing. 


All real progress is upstream. All the real crowns--soul-crowns and achievement crowns, not gold crowns--are rewards for fighting. 


It takes Grit--
To be patient,
To keep you temper,
To improve your Mind,
To exercise, and keep your body fit,
To diet, that is, to eat for Health and not for Sport,
To save money,
To push your business,
To tell the truth, 
To keep your mind clean, your mouth clean, and your soul clean,
To say no,
To do what you don't want to do, which means discipline,
To pay your debts,
To be loyal--to your ideals, to your wife, to your husbands, to your friends, to your country,
To say, "I don't know,"
To do your own thinking,
To resist the mob,
To be honest, simple, and straight,
And not to worry.


But these things are easy:
To be irritable, 
To give way to impulse, to say, "I can't help it," and to make no effort to control yourself.
To be mentally lazy, read nothing but trash, and have no habits of study,
To loaf, and to exercise only when you feel like it,
To eat what you please,
To wait for something to turn up,
To lie, to be disloyal, and to be unclean,
To agree with those you feel to be wrong, just to avoid trouble,
To side-step,
To go in debt, and to say, "Charge it!"
To join something and use partisanship for loyalty,
To go with the crowd,
To acquire a bad habit, and to nurse it along, 
To follow your impulses and not your intelligence,
To fill your body with disease, your mind with error, and your soul with evil, 
To slump, to pity yourself, to make excuses for yourself, to magnify your ego and ruin your character. 


It's easy going down.
It takes grit to go up, to get on, and even to keep decent.

Essay called "Time." It will encourage you to take some.