“It was our fault, and our very great fault—and now we must turn it to use.
We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.”

— Rudyard Kipling

The Lesson, Stanza 8 (1899-1902).
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Rudyard Kipling 200

English short-story writer, poet, and novelist 1865–1936

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“We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.”

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“The desire to vanquish faults because it is "I" who have them is ineffectual, since it falls within the same category as the faults themselves. Indeed, every fault is a form of egoism or even pride. We must tend towards Perfection because we understand it and therefore love it, and not because we desire that our ego should be perfect. In other terms, we must love and realize a virtue because it is true and beautiful, and not because it would become us if we possessed it; and we must hate and fight against a fault because it is false and ugly, and not because it is ours and because it disfigures us. To possess a virtue is first and foremost to be without the fault which is contrary to it, for God created us virtuous. He created us in His image; faults are superimposed. Moreover it is not we who possess virtue, it is virtue which possesses us.”

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