Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.
I can, therefore I am.
Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.
What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.
To be a good loser is to learn how to win.
Know or listen to those who know.
Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.
Quality is not an act, it is a habit.
The wise does at once what the fool does at last.
Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.
In hard-core science fiction in which characters are responding to a change in environment, caused by nature or the universe or technology, what readers want to see is how people cope, and so the character are present to cope, or fail to cope.