William George Jordan

Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral atmosphere of a life self-centred, self-reliant, and self-controlled. Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious power, --ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crisis.The Sphinx is not a true type of calmness, --petrifaction is not calmness; it is death, the silencing of all the energies; while no one lives his life more fully, more intensely and more consciously than the man who is calm.The Fatalist is not calm. He is the coward slave of his environment, hopelessly surrendering to his present condition, recklessly indifferent to his future. He accepts his life as a rudderless ship, drifting on the ocean of time. He has no compass, no chart, no known port to which he is sailing. His self-confessed inferiority to all nature is shown in his existence of constant surrender. It is not, -- calmness.

The Majesty of Calmness is one of William George Jordan's best-regarded self-help books; it discusses success as often being the result of past failures, and how haste in life and work is a scourge to be avoided.Working as a literary editor in New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jordan had ample experience of the bustling, non-stop urban lifestyle. Having a firm mental constitution to deal with the daily stresses and challenges of the concrete jungle is something which Jordan realized was all too essential; many who fall short do so not because of a lack of talent or luck, but overlooking the mental and psychological elements of weathering and succeeding in the world.With this in mind, Jordan sets out a series of topics and useful advice, with the final aim being attainment of happiness and a sense of accomplishment. The majesty of calmness - a serene mood that lets us consider the problems and possibilities before us - is contrasted to hurry, the hasty state that causes us to miss important details and subtleties. Since it first appeared in 1900, this book has been popular and much-consulted, its legacy being to successfully start many readers on the path to mental fortitude and a great mindset.