An American millionaire once told me how, in quest of making his living, he tried New York. The twenty-five dollars he arrived with went very soon and the penniless and friendless young man met with rebuff after rebuff. Came a time when he was almost starving, and he had to sleep out in a park because he could not afford a lodging-house. Finally his troubles and utter loneliness brought him to the horror of trying to commit suicide. But the strange hand of Fate sent someone to stop him; this very person who intervened was carrying the burden of still worse woes upon her back--but enduring them. When the young man heard of these from the lips of the woman who saved him, he realized as in a flash how unmanly it was for him to give up the struggle. So next morning determination took the place of despair. He started out again to look for work. He persevered so doggedly that the same afternoon brought him his first job.
-- Notebooks Category 13: Human Experience > Chapter 1 : Situation > # 385
