The Agonizing Struggle Between Past and Future...

For every man there are things that he can and things that he cannot endure. Whether or not he will encounter, before he dies, the thing that will break him depends as much on chance as merit.

Courage is needed to persist and endure, to withstand the tension within us, the agonizing struggle between past and future, between memory and will that is life itself and the effort of living.

Being faithful to our ideas means not just remembering that we had them once, but also wanting to keep them alive; remembering not just that we had them once, but that we have them still.
Andre Conte-Sponville