WHAT AM I? By Orison Swett Marden

I AM____?

I am the great paralyzer of ability, the murderer of aspiration and ambition, the destroyer of energy, the killer of opportunity.

I am the cause of more suffering, more human misery and loss, more tragedies and wretchedness than any other one thing.

I have cursed more human beings, arrested the development of more fine ability, strangled more genius and stifled more talent than anything else in the world.

I have shortened vast multitudes of lives and sent more people to the insane asylum, to crime and suicide than men dream of.

I cause chemical changes in the brain which cripple efficiency and ruin careers.

I deprive human beings of more things that are good for them, things that fit their nature, and that they were intended to enjoy, than any other one agent.

I cause men and women to wear poor, shabby clothes, to look dejected and forlorn, when it is the right of every human being to look up, to be well-dressed, attractive, and happy.

I shut out the sun of hope and cause men to see everything in a distorted light because I make them look on the shadow side of things.

I devitalize people and make chronic invalids of men and women who should be enjoying perfect health.

I am the devil's most effective instrument. If he can once get the bare suggestion of me into the human consciousness at the psychological moment, he can work destruction to the most ambitious, the greatest genius.

I starve and stunt minds, and keep vast multitudes of people in ignorance.

I usually attack a man when he is down, when things have gone wrong, and he is feeling blue. When he is tired, fatigued, devitalized, I find an easy entrance to his mind, because then his courage is not so keen, his brain is not so alert, and he has less dare in his nature.

I find that the best time to work on my victims is in the afternoon.

In the morning men are too vigorous mentally, have too much vitality and energy, too much courage, to give in to me, but along in the afternoon when the body and brain begin to weary of work, and the whole man feels a bit fagged, I can tackle the great mental scheme which was in the forefront of the brain in the forenoon, when the faculties were clean-cut, and unless my victim is alert I soon have him under my control.

I am the greatest human deceiver. Once I get into the mind, I can make a giant believe he is a pygmy, and of no account. I can cut down his self-respect until in his own estimation he is a very ordinary man.

I have a twin brother, Doubt, who is called the great traitor.

He is always ready to help me to finish my little game. We work together, and when under our control it is impossible for a man to be resourceful, original, or effective.

I creep into a man's mind after he has resolved to branch out on new lines, to step out from the beaten path and blaze his own way, and weaken his ardor, dampen his enthusiasm, and make him feel inefficient and helpless.

I whisper in his ear, "Go slow; better be careful. Many abler men than you have fallen down trying to do that very thing. It is not the time to start this thing; you had better wait, wait, wait."

I haven't a single redeeming thing in my nature, and yet I have more influence with the human race than has any one of the finer, nobler qualities which help to bring man up to the height of his possibilities.

I AM DISCOURAGEMENT