Good and ill

"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together; our virtues would be proud if our faults whipped them not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherished by our virtues." -- Shakespeare

I like that, and I have read many things on that theme. It is the plight of all thinking adults.
There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us that we would despair if we didn't have so many examples of others fouling up, it somehow takes the full spotlight off of our latest folly.
Life asks more of us than we are willing to give, but still, we want to give. We want to make a mark deeper and wider than we have as yet. I want a stronger character, deeper devotion to God and family, persevere longer, respond more lovingly, and on it goes. I can name no virtue that I have mastered. No temper I control at all times.
I like the following quote, I'll leave it at that.

" The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another;
and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he hoped to make it."
James M. Barrie.