Quotables: Hamilton Wright Mabie

Our wills are not ours to be crushed and broken; they are
ours to be trained and strengthened. Our affections are not
ours to be blighted and crucified; they are ours to be deepened
and purified. The rich opportunities of life are not held out
to us only to be snatched away by an invisible hand patiently
waiting for the hour when the cup is sweetest; they are given
to us that we may grow, alike through their use or their
withdrawal. They are real, they are sweet, and they are worthy
of our longing for them; we gain nothing by calling them dross,
or the world an illusion, or ourselves the victims of
deception, or by exalting renunciation as the highest virtue.
When these opportunities are denied us, it is a real, not an
imaginary, loss which we sustain; and our part is not that of
bare renunciation, of simple surrender; our part is to
recognize the loss, to bear the pain, and to find a deeper and
richer life in doing the will of God.

    - Hamilton Wright Mabie, The Life of the
          Spirit