Be content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything.
Slow but steady wins the race.
Wise men say nothing in dangerous times
Straw shows which way the wind is blowing.
It is in vain to expect our prayers to be heard, if we do not strive as well as pray.
If you wish me well, do not stand pitying me, but lend me some succour as fast as you can; for pity is but cold comfort when one is up to the chin in water, and within a hair's breadth of starving or drowning.