“Try to avoid complaints. Self-pity even when legitimate never fails to undermine your strength.”

“I love it when my justifications for avoiding housework are actually legitimate. ”

“Nowadays the standards had plummeted so far that I failed even at being a failure. I silently packed up. Nothing else was left. They had even robbed me of self-pity”

“And Elinor, in quitting Norland and Edward, cried not as I did. Even now her self-command is invariable. When is she dejected or melancholy? When does she try to avoid society, or appear restless and dissatisfied in it?”

“And then he'd tried to become an official Atheist and hadn't got the rock-hard self-satisfied strength of belief even for that.”

“And he has tried to swim that stream,And he swam on both strong and steady,But the river was wide and strength did fail,And never more he'll see his Annie.And woe betide the willow wan,And woe betide the bush and briar,For they broke beneath her true love's hand,When strength did fail and limbs did tire.”