In a calm sea every man is a pilot. But all sunshine without shade, all pleasure without pain, is not life at all. 

Take a lot of the happiness----it is a tanged yarn. Bereavements and blessing , one following another, make us sad and blessed by turns. Even death itself makes life more loving.  

Men come closest to their true selves in the sober moments of life, under the shadows of sorrow and loss. In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells so much as character, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self control, patience, and discipline, regulated by judement. I have always believed that the man who more simply without. In an age of extravagance（奢侈，浪费） and waste, I wish I could show few the real wants of humanity are. 

To regret one's errors to the point of not repeating then is true repentance（悔改，后悔）. There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.