If one cannot have success, the next most agreeable thing is failure. - Jean Ingelow

When our thoughts are born,
Though they be good and humble, one should mind
How they are reared, or some will go astray
And shame their mother.

[T]his is a woman-ridden age. Yet it is but fair to confess that all the former ones were man-ridden ages. What we want is a happy proportion.

Work is its own best earthly need,
Else have we none more than the sea-born throng
Who wrought these marvellous isles that bloom afar.