奧裏森·馬登/Orison Marden
Caesar's delay to read a message cost him his life when he reached the senate house.
“Delays have dangerous ends.”Colonel Rahl, the Hessian commander at Trenton, was playing cards when a messenger brought a letter stating that Washington was crossing the Delaware. He put the letter in his pocket without reading it until the game was fnished, when he rallied his men only to die just before his troops were taken prisoners. Only a few minutes'delay, but he lost honor, liberty, and life!
Success is the child of two very plain parents—punctuality and accuracy. There are critical moments in every successful life when if the mind hesitates or a nerve finches all will be lost.
Napoleon laid great stress upon that“supreme moment,”that“nick of time”which occurs in every battle, to take advantage ofwhich means victory, and to lose in hesitation means disaster. He said that he beat the Austrians because they did not know the value of fve minutes；and it has been said that among the trifles that conspired to defeat him at Waterloo, the loss of a few moments by himself and Grouchy on the fatal morning were the most significant. Blucher was on time, and Grouchy was late. It was enough to send Napoleon to St. Helena.
It is a well-known truism that has almost been elevated to the dignity of a maxim, that what may be done at any time will be done at no time.
“The fact is,”says the Rev. Sydney Smith,“that, in order to do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand shivering on the bank, and thinking of the cold and the danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can. It will not do to be perpetually calculating risks and adjusting nice chances. It did all very well before the food, but at present a man waits, and doubts, and hesitates, and consults his brother, and his uncle, and his cousin, and his particular friends, till, one fine day, he finds that he is sixty-five years of age，—that he has lost so much.”