In that one little corner of California is found a species of mining which is seldom or never mentioned in print. It is called “pocket mining” and I am not aware that any of it is done outside of that little corner. The gold is not evenly distributed through the surface dirt, as in ordinary placer mines, but is collected in little spots, and they are very wide apart and exceedingly hard to find, but when you do find one you reap a rich and sudden harvest. There are not now mo

Custer prayed, “inwardly, devoutly,” as he had informed Libbie in a letter five days earlier. “Never have I failed to command myself to God’s keeping,” he wrote, “asking Him to forgive my past sins, and to watch over me while in danger . . . and to receive me if I fell . . . After having done so all anxiety for myself, here or hereafter, is dispelled. I feel that my destiny is in the hands of the Almighty. This belief, more than any other fact or reason, makes me brave and fe

Epictetus, "Why, then, do we wonder any longer that, although in material things we are thoroughly experienced, nevertheless in our actions we are dejected, unseemly, worthless, cowardly, unwilling to stand the strain, utter failures one and all? For we have not troubled ourselves about these matters in time past, nor do we even now practice them. Yet if we were afraid, not of death or exile, but of fear itself, then we should practice how not to encounter those things that a

Epictetus, "Are we, then, at a loss to know how it comes about that we are subject to fear and anxiety? Why, what else can possibly happen, when we regard impending events as things evil? We cannot help but be in fear, we cannot help but be in anxiety. And then we say, “O Lord God, how may I escape anxiety?” Fool, have you not hands? Did not God make them for you? Sit down now and pray forsooth that the mucus in your nose may not run! Nay, rather wipe your nose and do not bla

Epictetus, "Why, then, are you not a good man yourself? – How do you make out, he answers, that I am not a good man? – Why, because no good man grieves or groans, no good man laments, no good man turns pale and trembles, or asks, “How will he receive me? How will he listen to me?” you slave! He will receive you and listen to you as seems best to him."

Epictetus, "When I see a man in anxiety, I say to myself, What can it be that this fellow wants? For if he did not want something that was outside of his control, how could he still remain in anxiety?"