a fragment from one of my favorite poems...

... translated to English:

Laurels? Do not foolishly demand them.
Ascents begins with falls
for overreaching spans and large burdens.
Thus, from the crest of yonder cliff,
The condor of the Andes jumps,
and for a moment plummets.

It is a good battle if,
at the end,
glory shimmers on a warrior’s shield
thick with arrows.

- Ode to a Prophet
by Salvador Diaz Mirón - Mexican poet