The Man We Fain Would Be

"Every man as he grows into life, finds he must employ such an ecomony on his own account. He is pressed to occupy positions or to engage in work which prevent him from achieving the purpose for which nature has fitted him. He is offered promotion which seems attractive and has its advantages; but he declines it, because it would divert him from his chosen aim. Continually, men spoil their life by want of concentration. They are greatly tempted to do so, for the public foolishly concludes that, because a man does one thing well, he can do everything well, and he who has written a good history is straightway asked to sit in Parliament, or the man whose scholarship and piety have been conspicuous is offered preferment which calls for the exercise of wholly different qualities...

Yes, it is good for the builder to bury the banker that he might have been. It is good for Paul to bury the Saul that he had been. But here is one man within us, whom we are most strongly tempted to bury, to whose funeral we must never, never, go. He is the man of our ideal; the man our prayers; the man we fain would be." - Dr. Marcus Dods as quoted by Frank Boreham, The Luggage of Life.