Misery - To Whom Shall I tell My Grief

Image by Brent Nelson via Flickr

...Again he is alone and again there is silence for him. . . . The misery which has been for a brief space eased comes back again and tears his heart more cruelly than ever. With a look of anxiety and suffering Iona's eyes stray restlessly among the crowds moving to and fro on both sides of the street: can he not find among those thousands someone who will listen to him? But the crowds flit by heedless of him and his misery. . . . His misery is immense, beyond all bounds. If Iona's heart were to burst and his misery to flow out, it would flood the whole world, it seems, but yet it is not seen. It has found a hiding-place in such an insignificant shell that one would not have found it with a candle by daylight. . . .
-- Anton Chekhov

On Persistence

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

-- Calvin Coolidge

All reverses are reversed in the face of God's Bounty.
-- The Adventures of Amir Hamza

I Know Not Why I Am So Sad

Image by Nellie Vin via Flickr

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad:
It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, came by it,
What stuff it is made of, wherefore it is born.
I am to learn;
And such a want wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.
Shakespeare -- The Merchant of Venice

Ever felt like Antonio in "The Merchant of Venice"? Troubled by a constant, undeniable, inexplicable sadness which hangs like a dense cloud of mist?