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"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt

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"Humans are unique in their capacity to learn from the mistakes of others and in their stubborn refusal to do so."
- Unknown

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"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
- Leo Tolstoy

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The story begins with the king as a boy having to spend the night alone in the forest to prove his courage so he could become king. And while he's spending the night alone he's visited by a sacred vision.

Out of the fire appears the Holy Grail, the symbol of God's divine grace. And a voice said to the boy, "You shall be the keeper of the Grail so that it may heal the hearts of men."

But the boy was blinded by greater visions of a life of power and glory and beauty. And in this state of radical amazement he felt for a brief moment, not like a boy, but invincible, like God. So he reached into the fire to take the Grail, and the Grail vanished, leaving him with his hand in the fire to be terribly wounded.

Now as this boy grew older this wound grew deeper until one day life for him lost its reason. He had no faith in any man, not even himself. He couldn't love. Or feel loved. He was sick with experience. He began to die.

One day, a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. But being a fool, he was simple minded and he didn't see a king, he only saw a man alone and in pain. And he asked the king, "What ails you friend?" The king replied, "I'm thirsty. I need some water to sooth my throat."

So the fool took a cup from beside his bed and filled it with water and handed it to the king. And as the king began to drink he realized that his wound was healed. He looked at his hands and there was the Holy Grail, that which he'd sought his whole life. He turned to the fool and said with amazement, "How could you find that which my brightest and bravest could not?" The fool replied, "I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty."
- The Fisher King

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Try do what you think is best and if you can't do that, do the best that you can.