Explore "Wishing" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Do you wish the world were better? / Let me tell you what to do: / Set a watch upon your actions, / Keep them always straight and true; / Rid your mind of selfish motives; / Let your thoughts be clean and high. / You can make a little Eden / Of the sphere you occupy.
Do you wish the world were wiser? / Well, suppose you make a start, / By accumulating wisdom / In the scrapbook of your heart: / Do not waste one page on folly; / Live to learn, and learn to live. / If you want to give men knowledge / You must get it, ere you give.
Do you wish the world were happy? / Then remember day by day / Just to scatter seeds of kindness / As you pass along the way; / For the pleasures of the many / May be ofttimes traced to one, / As the hand that plants an acorn / Shelters armies from the sun.