SINS OF THOUGHTLESSNESS
A very good motto to put up in your bedroom in bright red letters is this: "Evil is wrought by want of thought." Yes, it is, but that is no excuse for it. You are a thinking human being, and you have no right when you have done wrong to excuse it by saying you didn't think about it. It is your business in life to think. You were rude, your manner was not perfect, and the words you said were evidences of ill-temper; thoughtlessness will not pardon any of these. It always seems to me as if it were the weakest of all reasons, that one of lack of thought. It is equivalent to saying that you've no brain. You are asked by your mother to dust the parlor; it isn't done, and when, later in the day, you find her busy at it and know that she is so tired she ought to be resting at this time, what a poor reason it is for you to give as an explanation of your neglect, "I got to talking and didn't think."
You are asked by an employer to carefully watch a certain account and to see that there are no errors. At first you do with much enthusiasm; then, without exactly formulating the idea, you let it alone. Some day there is a great error; it means a loss of much money, and when you are reminded of what you were asked to do, isn't this
