If sorrow knocks at your door, stupefying your head or paralyzing your arms, flee this mental intoxication as soon as you can.

If you are ill, take care of your sick body in the conviction that you cannot fix with tears a watch that is out of order.

If you’ve made a mistake, try to reconsider your own fault, readjusting your course without vanity, admitting that you are not the first nor will you be the last to find yourself in a situation needing correction.

If you have yielded to temptation, lift yourself up and proceed on your way with the assignment life has marked out for you in the certainty that no one pays off a debt by virtue of useless repining.

If friends deserted you, think of the tree which at times needs pruning in order to get a new lease on life.

If you are beset by great afflictions in your home, awaken and know that each home provides the basis of education.

If you have suffered material injuries, remember that often the loss of a ring is the defense of the arm.

If someone has offended your dignity forget your resentment by reflecting that a man of good sense would never dress up his appearance with a can of garbage.

If impatience characterizes your habitual gestures, calm down by observing that small imbalances ultimately become great disturbances.

Whatever your problem may be, remember that all sorrow is a destructive shadow and that no shadow can manage to remain in the heart that focuses on work, and strives to serve.

André Luiz