Every story of conversion is the story of a blessed defeat.
See the bear in his own den before you judge of his conditions.
You never know what you can do until you try, and very few try unless they have to.
We may not be able to get certainty, but we can get probability, and half a loaf is better than no bread.
Repentance is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose; it is simply a description of what going back is like.
Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery's shadow or reflection: the fact that you don't merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief.