Self-pity
I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.
DH Lawrence
 Wikipedia article about DH Lawrence: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._H._Lawrence
 Quoted several times in the movie G.I. Jane.
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Another poem:
‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.’
– Marianne Williamson in Return to Love: Reflections on a Course in Miracles
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN
          SAID TO THE PSALMIST
  TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
    Life is but an empty dream ! —
  For the soul is dead that slumbers,
    And things are not what they seem.
  Life is real !  Life is earnest!
    And the grave is not its goal ;
  Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
    Was not spoken of the soul.
  Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
    Is our destined end or way ;
  But to act, that each to-morrow
    Find us farther than to-day.
  Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
    And our hearts, though stout and brave,
  Still, like muffled drums, are beating
    Funeral marches to the grave.
  In the world’s broad field of battle,
    In the bivouac of Life,
  Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
    Be a hero in the strife !
  Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant !
    Let the dead Past bury its dead !
  Act,— act in the living Present !
    Heart within, and God o’erhead !
  Lives of great men all remind us
    We can make our lives sublime,
  And, departing, leave behind us
    Footprints on the sands of time ;
  Footprints, that perhaps another,
    Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
  A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
    Seeing, shall take heart again.
  Let us, then, be up and doing,
    With a heart for any fate ;
  Still achieving, still pursuing,
    Learn to labor and to wait.