Meister Eckhart on How Patience Turns Even Failings into a Spiritual Exercise

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From The Talks of Instruction, by Meister Eckhart

If you have failings, then ask God frequently in prayer if it may not be to his honour and pleasure to take them from you, for you can do nothing without his help. If he does so, then thank him, and if he does not, then bear them for his sake, though not as the failings of sin but as a great exercise in which you can earn a reward and practise patience. You should be content whether he grants you the gift or not. […]

Now you say: I am afraid that I do not apply myself enough to this and do not persist as I should. This is properly the cause of regret. Bear it with patience. Regard it as an exercise, and be at peace. God is happy to endure scorn and discomfort and to go without service and praise so that those who intend him and belong to him have peace in themselves. Why then should we not have peace whatever he gives us or withholds from us?[…]

So do not complain but complain rather that you do still complain and find no peace. Complain only of an excess of this. For whoever has the right attitude will receive as much in loss as they do in gain.

Helen Keller Defines the Struggle with Evil As A Sort of Mental Gymnastic

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From Optimism, An Essay by Helen Keller

It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster. There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference. It is not enough to say that the twentieth century is the best age in the history of mankind, and to take refuge from the evils of the world in skyey dreams of good. How many good men, prosperous and contented, looked around and saw naught but good, while millions of their fellowmen were bartered and sold like cattle! No doubt, there were comfortable optimists who thought Wilberforce a meddlesome fanatic when he was working with might and main to free the slaves.

I distrust the rash optimism in this country that cries, “Hurrah, we’re all right! This is the greatest nation on earth,” when there are grievances that call loudly for redress. That is false optimism. Optimism that does not count the cost is like a house builded on sand. A man must understand evil and be acquainted with sorrow before he can write himself an optimist and expect others to believe that he has reason for the faith that is in him.

I know what evil is. Once or twice I have wrestled with it, and for a time felt its chilling touch on my life; so I speak with knowledge when I say that evil is of no consequence, except as a sort of mental gymnastic. For the very reason that I have come in contact with it, I am more truly an optimist. I can say with conviction that the struggle which evil necessitates is one of the greatest blessings. It makes us strong, patient, helpful men and women. It lets us into the soul of things and teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.

My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil, but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good, that it may prevail. I try to increase the power God has given me to see the best in everything and every one, and make that Best a part of my life. The world is sown with good; but unless I turn my glad thoughts into practical living and till my own field, I cannot reap a kernel of the good.