Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.

The passage is a compact statement of Keller’s ethic of resilient striving. It urges a deliberate shift of attention away from immediate setbacks (“today’s failures”) toward the longer horizon in which effort can ripen into “tomorrow” success. The emphasis on perseverance frames difficulty not as a verdict on one’s ability but as the very condition through which character and competence are formed. Keller also adds a distinctly aesthetic and moral dimension: striving for “something beautiful” has intrinsic value even when it does not yield the hoped-for result. In this view, effort refines the self and enlarges one’s capacity for joy, because overcoming obstacles becomes a source of meaning rather than mere hardship.