Blessing In Disguise

I used to hate my enemies. But that was before I learned how well they were serving me by keeping me everlastingly on the alert lest some weak spot in my character provide an opening through which they might damage me.

In view of what I have learned of the value of enemies, if I had none I would feel it my duty to create a few. They would discover my defects and point them out to me, whereas my friends, if they saw my weaknesses at all, would say nothing about them.

ACCEPT FAILURE AS A NORMAL PART OF LIVING. VIEW IT AS PART OF THE PROCESS OF EXPLORING YOUR WORLD; MAKE A NOTE OF ITS LESSONS AND MOVE ON.

 -Tom Hobson 

There can be no failure for the person who "still fights on:' No one has ever failed until they accept temporary defeat as failure.

I am convinced that failure is Nature's plan through which she hurdle jumps those of destiny and prepares them to do their work. Failure is Nature's great crucible in which she burns the dross from the human heart and so purifies the mettle of the person that it can stand the test of hard usage.

Fear and admission of failure are the ties that cause us to be "bound in shallows, and in miseries:" We can break these ties, turn them to advantage, and make them serve as a towline with which to pull ourselves ashore if we observe and profit by the lessons they teach.

SOMETIMES A NOBLE FAILURE SERVES THE WORLD AS FAITHFULLY AS A DISTINGUISHED SUCCESS.

 -Edward Dowden