"To begin at the lowest, many of you will be workers – not brain-workers, but hand-workers. You will be called to earn a livelihood by manual labor. You need not be ashamed of it; but, after all, a man ought not to work with his hands alone. He may begin in that way; but every man’s hand ought to be taught to think; and every year he ought to work more with his head, and less with his hand. I do not blame any man for being a day-laborer, or a menial laborer; but I do blame a man when he is content to labor with his hand, and never aspires to anything beyond that – never makes that hand fuller, more industrious, more capable. Every man who begins to work with his hand should put brains in the palm of that hand, and educate it, so that it shall become more and more potential…….. Every year one should read more, and every year one should learn and do more.”

I like this quote because in the foolishness and trubulence of my youth, having quit High School in my last year, I began working with my hands, and back! It didn't take to many shovel fulls, factory work and tedium before I figure I had better put some "brains in the palm of my hand" or I would be an old man at 40.

H.W. Beecher - Photo by Marino Cano