Search history, my boy, and see <br />What petty selfishness has done. <br />Find if you can one victory <br />That little minds have ever won. <br />There is no record there to read <br />Of men who fought for self alone, <br />No instance of a single deed <br />Splendor they may proudly own. <br /> <br />Through all life's story you will find <br />The miser—with his hoarded gold— <br />A hermit, dreary and unkind, <br />An outcast from the human fold. <br />Men hold him up to view with scorn, <br />A creature by his wealth enslaved, <br />A spirit craven and forlorn, <br />Doomed by the money he has saved. <br /> <br />No man was ever truly great <br />Who sought to serve himself alone, <br />Who put himself above the state, <br />Above the friends about him thrown. <br />No man was ever truly glad <br />Who risked his joy on hoarded pelf, <br />And gave of nothing that he had <br />Through fear of needing it himself. <br /> <br />For selfishness is wintry cold, <br />And bitter are its joys at last, <br />The very charms it tries to hold, <br />With woes are quickly overcast. <br />And only he shall gladly live, <br />And bravely die when God shall call, <br />Who gathers but that he may give, <br />And with his fellows shares his all.<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/selfishness-10/
