Only those who work hard get glory and success in life. Nothing great can be achieved without efforts. Napoleon once said, “God is on the side of the brave armies.” It is true that God also appreciate those who labour hard. There is no royal road to success. We cannot achieve real success in any field without great efforts and plenty of sacrifice. A student can never come out with flying colours unless he had worked hard throughout the year. Those who aspire to reach the top of the academic ladder must work very hard. A farmer cannot reap a reach harvest without putting in it his utmost efforts while working in the fields. A lawyer cannot defend his clients if he does not work hard at his law books. Prosperous businessmen have to work hard to earn fat profits. Scientists keep toiling continuously for years and only then do they make great inventions. In sports, the same principle is applied. The competitors are ambitious and can go through the hard moments of a competition, wherein a normal human being would surely fail. Once you suffer the pain, there is following the reward in form of Gain. So in all phase of life we have to accept this. No pain, no gain is certainly true for all the different aspects of life. It is also true in character-building. No one is naturally very good. A good and noble character is the result of constant sacrifice. Let’s all remember that there are no gains in life without pains.

This famous proverb instructs us that a person should mould up his attitude, behavioral pattern and his habits so as to fit himself while indulging in different atmosphere where he has to lead his life whatever his own life style be. He is known sociable when he acts according to the social context in which he is kept. This is a very famous proverb not only on those days but today too. Rome is a European city as well as the most glamorous city of the world. It is considered to be the symbol of the society and Romans are the symbol of people. This proverb tells us that when one happens to go to Rome, one has to make himself fit in every aspect of his manners, behavior, speech, costume, food habits and so forth leaving out those habits of his own while indulging with the people of Rome. He is known to be sociable when he behaves according to the social context of Romans while his stay… or else he will be known uncivilized. In general point of view this proverb does not refer to Rome alone, but to other foreign nations and different atmosphere of any kind. When a person goes to some foreign country of different culture to his won, he has to adopt the culture, ways and means and other habits of the society of that country. He has to indulge so to make himself easy. Otherwise he will be a fish out of Water. Gandhiji when he went to England for his further studies was mentally prepared to adopt the manners of English and to move in the society and also learned French and dancing. Similarly when foreigners come to our country they learn how to greet people in their local language. So it is wise to act according to the fashion of the society. Otherwise his poison will look very odd.

Generally, all of us have a goal in life which we work to achieve; however, the final goal is achieved only by the people who have strong will power and work hard with complete dedication. Will power is necessary to create a way of surety of getting goal in life. Most of us do not succeed in life as they don’t have strong determination and will towards achieving the goal. The meaning of this English proverb ‘where there is a will there is a way’ is when we have strong will to get something in life; surely we get that in future. Most of the people who are not determined towards their goal generally tend to curse their fate or misfortune. But the fact of getting failure in life is that we don’t have will and dedication towards the task. We should blame ourselves, our negligence only, and not our fortune. Having wish to get something is not enough; we have to work actively in right direction with strong will power.

Penny-wise and pound-foolish’ is the epithet applied to that man who is very unwilling to spend small sums of money, with the result that he is obliged to spend a larger sum that it would have been necessary if he had not been so miserly in the beginning. Such a policy is usually followed by men who are either very miserly or short-sighted. In these days of keen economical struggle, the majority of men have to struggle hard and they earn perhaps just sufficient to make both ends meet. Under the pressure of their financial circumstances, those people are naturally led to adopt a penny-wise and pounding foolish policy. The temptation of being able to do by spending little for the time being makes them blind to the consequences of such a policy. They think that they will eventually find to their amazement that, as a matter of fact, that have had to spend more than it would have been necessary had they been a little more farsighted. Every moment of our lives we find illustrations of this fact. For instance, penny-wise and pound-foolish persons, when they have to purchase the necessaries of life, always look at the cheapness of the article without paying any attention to its durability or good quality. The inevitable result is that the article in question does not last long, and where one of good and durable quality would have sufficed, he has to buy several. Thus, by spending a little more in the first instance, he would have been spared the subsequent drain of money. But foolish men of this type have never the heart to do it.

The power of a pen is enormously larger than a sword. The help of a minute tip of a pen can achieve what a sharp edged sword cannot achieve. What it implies is that the power of writing is much stronger than the power of hatred, war, and fighting. A war always ends in killings and has only a single directional ending – defeat, death, loss… There is no end of the tunnel when a war is there, and even if it comes, there is no light. Writing is priceless. Can we pay back for the stories told in our childhood – by parents, grandparents, teachers and elder siblings. Can we pay back for the stories read during our childhood from storybooks, comics etc. bought for a meagre cost but the impression of those stories, learning gained from those stories and the legacy that is carried from generation after generation… gives us a return that the amount paid for buying those books seems minuscule but the return is huge. The story of one stick versus a bundle of sticks that taught us the power of unity – a collection of just a few words but providing us a lesson for life. There are so many examples of such writing we read during the childhood that stays with us until the last breath. There are so many quotes about books and those are so true – “Books are the best companion”, “Books are the treasure house of knowledge”, “Books are the way to the Truth” and so on. We all know that those who love reading, are never alone. Books give us the freedom to think. Books make us fearless. Book are the best way to learn about the places where we cannot travel to, in person. Books take us to a journey having no boundaries.