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If the check to a weakness, a shortcoming, an undesirable impulse, or a negative emotion is given instantly, if retreat from it is made before it has time to swell and strengthen, victory is very largely assured. He need not be too ashamed because he has felt these things, provided he pulls himself together. They are what he has inherited from past births, plus what he has picked up in the present one, and it is inevitable or "natural" that he should experience them. Even the saints have endured them repeatedly, but those who conquered in the end knew this trick of instantly outwitting the enemy. Father John of Kronstadt, a Russian of our own century, and Saint Isaac, a Syrian of the sixth century, are self-confessed examples.

-- Notebooks Category 6: Emotions and Ethics > Chapter 1 : Uplift Character > # 99