looking for a proverb regarding defeat of man

Solution 1:

"It's the things we love most that destroy us."

I don't know the original source of this, but a quick Google search shows that it was used in Game of Thrones:

"The things we love destroy us every time, lad. Remember that."

(Source)

And in Hunger Games:

"It's the things we love most, that destroy us."

(Source)

My guess is that the saying is older than those books though.