Seventy years of toiling and moiling and effort and sweat, and it has all come to nothing; like a long algebraic sum that covers pages of intricate calculations, and the pluses and minuses just balance each other; and the net result is a great round nought.
"Expositions of Holy Scripture Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers"
Alexander Maclaren
Life must be studied not from the pluses alone, but from the minuses too.
"Letters of Anton Chekhov"
Anton Chekhov Translated by Constance Garnett