ridicule is often harder to bear than self-denial. - Louisa May Alcott

if all else fails you can read

I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle — something heroic, or wonderful — that won't be forgotten after I'm dead. I don't know what, but I'm on the watch for it, and mean to astonish you all, some day. I think I shall write books, and get rich and famous; that would suit me, so that is my favorite dream.

…for it is a very solemn thing to be arrested in the midst of busy life by the possibility of the great change.