" If you were crossing a plain, with the good will to get across, but all the same your steps took you backwards, it would be a matter for despair; but as you are clambering up a steep slope, as steep, say, as you yourself are viewed from below, it could also be that your steps backward are only caused by the nature of the ground, and you do not have to despair. "

― Franz Kafka , The Zürau Aphorisms