"Sadness is what you get when you take the drive and ambition out of anger. Speaking strictly in the coldest sense, it is a wasteful emotion, counterproductive to both action and purpose. It serves only as a self-defeating failsafe mechanism for those with distant hopes, an excuse to ignore what may seem unachievable. Sadness and sorrow are two very different things, girl. Sorrow is a contagious woeful empathy; sadness is pathetic, self-deprecating, and ultimately suicidal in most respects."
This is from a book I am writing, when a girl asks the main character why he steps forth and does his duty of setting things right to people suffering from "Sorrow" (the influence of a mad old God of the same name), with what seems to be disregard for the possibility that they might just be normal people going through a sad time. It is a reflection of my personal feelings on sadness--though I get sad plenty of times, I try to always use that sadness to spur myself to action rather than becoming stagnant.