Original artwork, not a still
Despondency is not a state of humility. On the contrary, it is the vexation and despair of a cowardly pride; nothing is worse. Whether we stumble, or whether we fall, we must only think of rising again and going on in our course.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The writer argues that gloom after failure is not modesty but wounded, timid pride. Whether one merely trips or falls hard, the right response is not brooding but getting up and continuing along one's path. Self-pity, on this view, is worse than the mistake itself.
Context reviewed
