I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best. George Eliot
It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others. Michel de Montaigne
I used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of his [Degas'] art. It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it. Mary Cassatt
The sight of a drunkard is a better sermon against that vice than the best that was ever preached on that subject. George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax
Man can, indeed, act contrarily to the decrees of God, as far as they have been written like laws in the minds of ourselves or the prophets, but against that eternal decree of God, which is written in universal nature, and has regard to the course of nature as a whole, he can do nothing. Baruch Spinoza
You can only lean against that which resists. Hindi Proverb