In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins.

Everyone in a long struggle reaches a point of believing it is lost, and the crucial fact is that the other side is there too. You only ever see your own exhaustion, never theirs, which makes your position look uniquely hopeless when it is simply late. Whether that reads as encouraging or grim depends on what the struggle is, and anyone who has been in a real one knows the cost of continuing is not a metaphor.

In any long effort of yours, treat the certainty that it is over as information about fatigue rather than about the odds. Decide in advance what would genuinely mean stopping, so the decision is not made at the lowest point.