Prejudice and bigotry are brought down. . . by the sheer force of determination of individuals to succeed and the refusal of a human being to let prejudice define the parameters of the possible.
I could not forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain, and looking out to sea, in hopes of seeing a ship : then fancy that, at a vast distance, I spied a sail, please myself with the hopes of it, and, after looking steadily, till I was almost blind, lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase my misery by my folly.