Up to the age of 55, the life story of Miguel Cervantes, the great Spanish writer, reads like a classic story of failure. He lost his arm in a naval engagement while serving his country. His previous books had not been noticed by the critics or public. His family had dismissed him as a hopeless chaser after windmills. He was unjustly sent to prison, although another man was guilty of the embezzlement of government funds in the military pro­curement office where Cervantes worked as an obscure clerk. His prison term had damaged his health.

But his goal in life, from which he never wavered, was to portray the virtues and idealism of mankind. At the age of 62 Cervantes gave the world what is considered one of the ten great books of all times - Don Quixote and his famous ad­ventures.

There are no hopeless situations, as we can see from the life of this famous writ­er. There are only people who have grown hopeless about them. The current slang expression “keep your chin up” is a color­ful way of making the most of the best and the least of the worst, of tying another knot and hanging on when we think we are at the end of our rope.

The great English dictionary compiler, Samuel Johnson, made the remark that a man gets acquainted with himself in ad­versity, since he is likely to be free of ad­mirers at that time. Adversity is the time to keep working, to keep faith, to re-ex­amine our goals. The top of the mountain is there for those who have the steadfast­ness to keep climbing.

"There are some defeats more triumphant than victories." Michael de Montaigne

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