“If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.”
— Thomas Aquinas
Paraphrase of Summa Theologica I-II, Q2, a5 by L.L. Fuller in 'The Morality of Law' (1964), p. 185, with footnote to Aquinas.
My family locked me in a castle to keep me safe from a life of poverty. I spent a year in that room. They thought they were preserving me. But I was not a ship to be kept in harbor. I was built for open water. I left the castle, joined the beggars, and spent my life thinking harder than anyone. Safety is not the point. The point is what you were built for.