Life is a relentless and intense struggle extending from the...

Life is a relentless and intense struggle extending from the first phases of life to its last moments. Patience and fortitude are the most effective weapons in this unceasing battle. Victory on this battlefield belongs to those who are courageous and unflinching and who do not succumb to obstacles under any condition. No matter how frequently they may stumble and fall, they rise up and continue their endeavor and overcome difficulties with sagacity and level headedness.

If our spiritual capacities be of a mediocre or even a poor quality and should we be of quite ordinary intelligence, fortitude can strengthen and complement our personality. The removal of one obstacle and the solution of a problem prepare us further for facing new obstacles and creates a measure of inner resilience.

Every small task that we accomplish adds to the momentum of the flywheel of our activity, guides us towards bigger and worthier tasks, and gives greater preparedness to our minds in combating problems and pursuing our goals. Dr. Marden describes the role of adversity in the development of man's spiritual faculties in these words: In the same way as the best and strongest tools are forged with the help of the heat of a furnace, so also noble morals develop in the straits of hardship.

The greater the hardness and brilliance of a diamond, the more is the friction required to grind it. Kant, the German philosopher, says: "A pigeon in its flight considers the air to be the only hindrance in its way; it imagines that had there been no air it would have flown faster and with greater ease. Yet without the air it would have been unable to fly in a vacuum and would fall to the ground.

Hence the same element that poses resistance to the pigeon in its flight is basically that which makes flight at all possible." The effort to climb to an elevated station is greatly valuable: even if one fails to reach his intended goal, such effort would make him stronger. An encounter with great events may lead lethargic persons who do not use their brains and have no aim in life to acquire unprecedented abilities and success in life.

Often a young man faced with his father's death or the loss of wealth or some other calamity, loses the crutches that he leaned upon and acquires an unusual and remarkable vigor. Imprisonment has often revealed the hidden fire that lay in many individuals.