The above quote is from Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil.

I was discussing looking into the abyss with a hyper-smart person the other day (although they are so modest, I doubt that they would acknowledge it).

I said I saw "creation" in the abyss.  They said they saw "resignation".

Tonight I saw resignation as well (long story).

My immediate thought was self-pity, then I recalled:

Examine the lives of the best and most fruitful people and peoples and ask yourselves whether a tree that is supposed to grow to a proud height can dispense with bad weather and storms; whether misfortune and external resistance, some kinds of hatred, jealousy, stubbornness, mistrust, hardness, avarice, and violence do not belong among the favourable conditions without which any great growth even of virtue is scarcely possible. The poison of which weaker natures perish strengthens the strong -- nor do they call it poison.

-- Nietzsche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gay_Science)

Nietzsche and wine will do wonders...