" Like some folks,” his father said when Phineas had been railing about them at home, “never tryin’ to pull through any bad goin’ unless made to. That’s what I always want you children to remember. Pull yourselves on through. No matter what you get stuck in . . . mud, swamps, gumbo, snow, jobs, difficulties, disappointments, hurts . . . any hard place or thing in life . . . don’t stop like an ox and wait for the black-snake to crack. Do your own thinkin’ . . . your own decidin’ . . . then put your neck to the yoke and do your own pullin’. Nobody in this world is ever goin’ to help get your load out but yourself. If you forget everything else I ever said to you: pull on through. "

― Bess Streeter Aldrich , Song of Years