I have no idea what the name of the book is, I read it 25 years ago, but a character in it was talking about life and either them or another chatacter eventually broke it down to
ride the waves
I took it as there's ups and downs. That's ok, just ride the waves.
I apologize that it's a song lyric, I understand this is a books sub, so delete if you must, but...I have a perfect one from a Simon and Garfunkel song, that hits right in the feels every time I hear it:
"In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade, and he carries a reminder of every glove that laid him down or cut him till he cried out...in his anger and his shame, "I am leaving, I am leaving but the fighter still remains.""
Whatever exists, he said. Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.
He looked about at the dark forest in which they were bivouacked. He nodded toward the specimens he'd collected. These anonymous creatures, he said, may seem little or nothing in the world. Yet the smallest crumb can devour us. Any smallest thing beneath yon rock out of men's knowing. Only nature can enslave man and only when the existence of each last entity is routed out and made to stand naked before him will he be properly suzerain of the earth.