I mean that in a literal sense. You can’t give up – who would you even surrender to? Life isn’t your opponent, it’s the field you’re playing on. You can’t quit, because there’s no one to quit to.
Any time you’re overcome with stress, frustration, or anxiety and you feel the desire to just throw in the towel, remember – there’s nowhere to throw it. Any course of action you’d actually take as a manifestation of “throwing in the towel” would be at least as much work as persevering. So you might as well persevere.
Futility is futile. You can only leave the game by winning it. There’s no timer; you have forever. You just can’t quit.
The Opportunity Machine 