Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims and Reflections

In our nature, however, there is a provision, alike marvelous and merciful, that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it. – Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

Diseases can be our spiritual flat tires — disruptions in our lives that seem to be disasters at the time but end by redirecting our lives in a meaningful way. – Bernie S. Siegel

Life is hard to bear. But do not pretend to be so frail! We are all good he-asses and she-asses of burden. – Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), “Of Reading and Writing,” Thus Spake Zarathus