“First of all, there’s no such thing as definitive victory over one’s faults, Prudencia. It’s not an arena in which mere willpower works. Our nature is defective, like an old, broken locomotive, so however hard we try, we’re bound to fail. Getting upset about it is absurd and, though it might make you angry to hear it, arrogant too. You won’t like this but, when we fail, what we have to do is ask for help from the machine’s maker. And always allow the maker to improve things with a good application of oil from time to time.”
