Apparent failure may hold in its rough shell the germs of a success that will blossom in time, and bear fruit throughout eternity. A friend can tell you things you don't want to tell yourself. Love is shown in your deeds, not in your words. A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness. Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate. I grow more intense as I age. While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, another is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. Every great work, every big accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement, comes apparent failure and discouragement. Dreams never hurt anybody if you keep working right behind the dreams to make as much of them become real as you can. Old age and sickness bring out the essential characteristics of a man. An optimist is a person who sees only the lights in the picture, whereas a pessimist sees only the shadows. An idealist, however, is one who sees the light and the shadows, but in addition sees something else: the possibility of changing the picture, of making the lights prevail over the shadows. | 
