Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. Pain is inevitable. To oppose something is to maintain it. Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own despised and unwanted feelings. The greatest mistake you can make is to be continually fearing you will make one.
Happiness depends, as Nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.
The habit of persistence is the habit of victory. He who is outside the door has already a good part of his journey behind him. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing. We win half the battle when we make up our minds to take the world as we find it, including the thorns. Life acquires meaning when we face the conflict between our desires and reality.