Life is, in fact, a battle

"Life is, in fact, a battle. Evil is insolent and strong: beauty enchanting but rare; good very apt to be weak; folly very apt to be defiant; wickedness to carry the day; imbeciles to be in great places, people of sense in small, and mankind generally unhappy.

But the world as it stands is no illusion, no phantasm, no evil dream of a night; we wake up to it again for ever and ever; we can neither forget it nor deny it nor dispense with it."

I do not remember who wrote it, but I fully subscribe to it.