Before you start pushing a rock up a hill, make sure it’s a hill you want to climb.

From Alfred’s journal

A man spent most of Tuesday afternoon digging out the stump in the yard behind the blue house. He had a mattock and a bad shoulder and by four o'clock he had the thing loose and sitting in the grass, and then he stood there looking at it like he had no idea where it ought to go. I watched the whole business from the gutter. For years I thought the interesting question was whether a creature had the strength for the work, because that is the question you ask about a bird carrying a stick too heavy for it; before you start pushing a rock up a hill, make sure it's a hill you want to climb, and I had never once put it that way around. He went in without the stump. It is still there this evening, and so, I notice, is the hole.