Excerpt from My Friends and I<br><br>Friendships fade from him, but the success ful man stands firm. It may be that on that dizzy point where, like the eagle, he has placed himself, there is no room for amate. Alone he has fought the solemn battle of life; he has been bold and cautious; with a single eye and for his own hand he has waged war upon the world, and has gotten the victory. Friends may have disappointed him; friends may have forgotten him he does not complain. The hero of his boyish fancy has made no mark in the world the comrade of his first struggles in political life has been alienated from him she whom he chose to be closer than a friend, has been to him the greatest disappointment of all. But, come what disillusions may, he who is strong to help himself, and to make others help him in the world's great battle, will raise his head proudly, and with a wary eye on friends and foes alike, go on grandly self-confident from victory to victory.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.