To want something badly enough that you would lie and cheat to get it alters the consciousness, and from that altered state of consciousness emerges an evil and tragic destiny.

What you want, what you will, although it may seem right and proper in your own eyes to have it, can tempt you onto a path that is fraught with danger, because every decision, no matter how small, contributes to the making or breaking of your character.

And in the end, after all is said and done, all that a man has left is his character: what he has become, what he is.

Ego gratification leads to failure in business, in family matters, in all realms, because of its effect on character.

The acquisition of fame and fortune is petty cash compared to the development of your soul. But the willful, ambitious person is not wise enough to see that this is so.

He sees security and advantage only in the murky waters of challenge, where danger and failure lurk. The way of altruism is too tame and

unprofitable for him.

He does not see that even if he becomes successful in the acquisition of worldly goods, his success will not bring him happiness if he has traded his soul for it.

Everyone has at least one weakness that has caused him some suffering. At least, it has stretched his ability to rationalize his foolishness almost to the breaking point.

For instance, you may have bought a new car you could not really afford, instead of an older model, because you could not resist an image of yourself driving around and being admired by your friends.

Your wiser course would have been to invest the money in real estate or some sort of business, but you jeopardized the future security of your family and yourself just for the pleasure of showing off and playing big shot.

"The acquisition of fame and fortune is petty cash compared to the development of your soul."

Of course, the real cost of yielding to your weaknesses is much greater than the risk of losing material security; it is the insidious effect it has on your character.

Choose willfully, ambitiously, selfishly, and you begin, slowly but surely, to degenerate into a sensual mass of decaying protoplasm, subject to the beck and call of external conditions.

Give in to lower impulse just once, and you will find it easier to do so again and again, until your willfulness gets locked in, utterly absorbed in the passionate sway of flesh.

Steal just one penny, and you are no longer in control of your urge to steal. The inner ground that would have sustained your power to resist gives way under your feet as you float off to bond with the source of your temptation.

Henceforth, you are no longer free to make any choices at all. You serve the source of your sick passion.

Blinded by its urges, you move and have your being, until one day, something other than you becomes a presence inside you, acting like a counterfeit conscience.

No longer can you respond to reason as you should, or grow from the ground of your original inner being.

You have separated yourself from your real mind so that you can no longer experience the good life that flows through a selfless abandonment to noble thoughts and feelings.

Now your only guidance will come from appeals to your ego and passions, your weaknesses and lusts.

You are driven by fears, pressures, and challenges.