After all, the purpose of negative stakes in a story is to contrast with the happy ending we all want to experience.

Heroes need to be challenged by outside forces.

You put your characters through hell. You put them through hell. That's the only way we change.

If you plan for the worst—if you can live with the worst—the good will always take care of itself.

will never hesitate to tell people that inward conflict is no proof that a person is not holy, and that they must not think they are not sanctified because they do not feel entirely free from inward struggle. We will doubtless have such freedom in heaven, but we will never enjoy it in this world.

Mark well what I say. Do not overlook this, though all the rest be forgotten. I do not say that the statesman must throw up his office, and the rich man forsake his property. Let no one fancy that I mean this. But I say, if a man would be saved, whatever be his rank in life, he must be prepared for tribulation. He must make up his mind to choose much which seems evil, and to give up and refuse much which seems good.

Faith told Moses that affliction and suffering were not real evils.--They were the school of God, in which He trains the children of grace for glory--the medicines which are needful to purify our corrupt wills--the furnace which must burn away our dross--the knife which must cut the ties that bind us to the world.

Circumstances do not determine a man, they reveal him.

I believe, with abiding conviction, that this people-nurtured by their deep faith, tutored by their hard lessons, moved by their high aspirations-have the will to meet the trials that these times impose.

Smooth seas don't produce skillful sailors.

All these troubles you've been having aren't a punishment from God. He wants to use them to draw you closer to himself.

Anyone can believe and sing praises on the Temple Mount when the sun is shining, but true praise is sung in the darkest valley when the Accuser tells you to curse God for making you suffer so much pain.