Even the men most richly ...

Even the men most richly endowed with ability, education, and opportunity, even the giants of the race, after the completest life possible, feel, as they stand on the edge of the grave, that they are but human acorns with all their possibilities still in them, just beginning to sprout.
 Orison Swett Marden

Quotes from the same author

Many mothers make the mistake of forever looking for the bad in the child, trying to . . . uproot and drive it out. This is like trying to eject the darkness from a room without opening the shutters and letting in the light. As John Newton said, 'I cannot sweep the darkness out, but I can shine it out.'
 Orison Swett Marden
We do not know what we can bear until we are put to the test. Many a delicate mother, who thought that she could not survive the death of her children, has lived to bury her husband and the last one of a large family, and in addition to all this has seen her home and last dollar swept away; yet she has had the courage to bear it all and to go on as before. When the need comes, there is a power deep within us that answers the call.
 Orison Swett Marden
The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.
 Orison Swett Marden
Analyzing what you haven't got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career.
 Orison Swett Marden
There is no stimulus like that which comes from the consciousness of knowing that others believe in us.
 Orison Swett Marden