There is much that is beautiful to do in this life. You don't need to do it all. You just need to do it well.

all cruelty springs from weakness. —- Seneca

if there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. ―- Thomas Paine

for with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief. -- ecclesiastes 1:18

"Only less foolish therefore is the desire for rank and office.

If we reflect on the desire to leave behind a name for excellence of heart and head, we see that the love of fame is a delight in the approval of others. But neither those who praise nor those who blame remain long of this world, and those to whom they tell the tale must presently depart. Whose praise do you covet? Whose blame do you dread? Praise is the fountain of blame. Though your fame lives on, it profits nothing, and this desire comes next in foolishness.

Speaking of such as persist in the mere search for skill and wisdom, it must be said that with the growth of knowledge comes falsehood; increasing talent brings increasing care.

True knowledge is not gained by precept or by study. What then is knowledge? Right and wrong are one. What is good and what evil? The true man has neither knowledge nor virtue. He is without deeds, without name. Who then shall know him, who shall speak his fame? Not that he conceals his virtue, nor cherishes his unwisdom, but because he is beyond the confines of wisdom and of ignorance, of gain and of loss.

So much for those that set their deluded hearts on fame and profit. All things are nothing—unworthy of speech, unworthy of desire." -- Yoshida Kenko