The best laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft a-gley; And leave us naught but grief and pain For promised joy

Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the evening gale. from the poem The Cotter’s Saturday Night.

The best plans of men and mice often go awry

I know that it's easier to look at death than it is to look at pain, because while death is irrevocable, and the grief will lessen in time, pain is too often merely relentless and irreversible.

Ye hypocrites! are these your pranks? To Murder men, and give God thanks? Desist for same! proceed no further: God won't accept your thanks for Murther!

We are not strong enough to stand up against endless grief, And yet pain is the constant drone of life. So if we are to have any happiness at all, it is only in the passing instant.