Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.
James Russell LowellAmong the lessons taught by the French revolution, there is none sadder or more striking than this--that you may make everything else out of the passions of men except a political system that will work, and that there is nothing so pitilessly and unconsciously cruel as sincerity formulated into dogma.
James Russell Lowell