To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action, when there’s more reason to fear than to hope.

Leaving and fleeing are not the same act, though pride often insists they are. Pulling back from a situation whose odds have turned is a judgment, not a collapse of nerve. What gets people hurt is treating persistence as a virtue independent of the facts, staying in the room because walking out would look like losing. Real courage includes the ability to count honestly.

Look at something you are persisting with and ask what reason you actually have to expect it to improve. If the honest answer is reluctance to be seen quitting, that is not a reason.