Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.
Robert A. Heinlein

Great comforts do, indeed, bear witness to the truth of thy grace, but not to the degree of it; the weak child is oftener in the lap than the strong one.
William Gurnall

I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done.
Samuel Smiles

Life is a succession of lessons enforced by immediate reward, or, oftener, by immediate chastisement.
Ernest Dimnet

Men are much oftener thrown on their knees by the melancholy than by the agreeable passions.
David Hume

Men fail much oftener from want of perseverance than from want of talent.
William Cobbett

Men, as well as women, are much oftener led by their hearts than by their understandings.
Lord Chesterfield

No men are oftener wrong than those that can least bear to be so.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

The innocence that feels no risk and is taught no caution, is more vulnerable than guilt, and oftener assailed.
Nathaniel Parker Willis

Towns oftener swamp one than carry one out onto the big ocean of life.
David Herbert Lawrence