In the brute physical world, and the one encompassed by medicine, there are all too many things that could kill you, don’t kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker.

Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

We have the tendency to run away from suffering and to look for happiness. But, in fact, if you have not suffered, you have no chance to experience real happiness.

They died hard, those savage men – like wounded wolves at bay. They were filthy, and they were lousy, and they stunk. And I loved them.

When I was very young I was sort of floored by the fact that my mother and my father and everyone I knew was going to die one day, and myself too. I had a sort of a philosophical crisis. I couldn’t believe that we were mortal.

When times are bad is when the real entrepreneurs emerge.

Economic medicine that was previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel. These once unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome after-effects. Their precise nature is anyone’s guess, though one likely consequence is an onslaught of inflation.

The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.

I have the people behind me and the people are my strength.

I’m thankful for the incredible advances in medicine that have taken place during my lifetime. I almost certainly wouldn’t still be here if it weren’t for them.

Great talents are the most lovely and often the most dangerous fruits on the tree of humanity. They hang upon the most slender twigs that are easily snapped off.

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.

The Roman Curia has its defects, but it seems to me that people often overemphasize its defects and talk too little about the health of the many religious and laypeople who work there.

Adopt responsibility for your own well-being, try to put your family together, try to serve your community, try to seek for eternal truth… That’s the sort of thing that can ground you in your life, enough so that you can withstand the difficulty of life.

In all my wild mountaineering, I have enjoyed only one avalanche ride; and the start was so sudden, and the end came so soon, I thought but little of the danger that goes with this sort of travel, though one thinks fast at such times.

Every action has a consequence. It may be good for strengthening. And I have no doubt that lifting a lot of weights can get you stronger. I just don’t know if lifting stronger weights can keep you healthy, or it can keep you doing your job better, especially for a pro athlete.

Even with all the advantages of retrospect, and a lot of witnesses dead and gone, you can’t make your life look as if you intended it or you were consistent. All you can show is how you dealt with various hands.

When you go to war as a boy, you have a great illusion of immortality. Other people get killed, not you… Then, when you are badly wounded the first time, you lose that illusion, and you know it can happen to you.

There’s people that tried to celebrate when I lost that got nothing to do with it. That’s not the sign of a champion.

There are a lot of ‚chicken Christians.‘ Chickens are generally afraid of life, and they seldom fly or reach their potential in life. And when a storm comes, all they seem to do is flap around the chicken yard, stirring up dirt and running to the chicken house.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.

How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?

I was raised in a family where vulnerability was barely tolerated: no training wheels on our bicycles, no goggles in the pool, just get it done. And so I grew up not only with discomfort about my own vulnerability, I didn’t care for it in other people either.

When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade.

A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.

If you spend your life competing with business men, what do you have? A bank account and ulcers!

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

I was willing to accept what I couldn’t change.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.

My gold, my money couldn’t stop cancer from appearing on my body. If they can’t save me, then I don’t need them.

The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.

I’ve never been shy or secretive with the fact that if you walk into my life, you may be walking onto a record.

If there’s something dangerous, sauces are dangerous for the body.

As a vulnerability researcher, the greatest barrier I see is our low tolerance for vulnerability. We’re almost afraid to be happy. We feel like it’s inviting disaster.

Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.

I hate pain, despite my ability to tolerate it beyond all known parameters, which is not necessarily a good thing.

When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.

As soon as there is life there is danger.

Tina Turner is someone that I admire, because she made her strength feminine and sexy.

And God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he’s no longer God… They’ll turn on him, and I hope he survives it.

We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.

Life is warfare.

True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.

A lot of psychological principles and even medical principles, you see them coming around to what the Bible said hundreds of years ago: a merry heart is good like a medicine.

Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much larger. Some are villains and others are good guys. But all of them are necessary; otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.

There is no education like adversity.

Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.

If one dream dies, dream another dream. If you get knocked down, get back up and go again.

This is a ruthless world and one must be ruthless to cope with it.

A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others, is stronger than any physical force in the universe.

We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.

We all die, we all get sick, we all feel hunger and lust and pain, and therefore human life is consistent from one generation to the other. We all – most of us, anyway – want connections with other people and spend our lives looking for them.

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

If my survival caused another to perish, then death would be sweeter and more beloved.

I don’t know driving in another way which isn’t risky. Each one has to improve himself. Each driver has its limit. My limit is a little bit further than other’s.

We have food all around us all the time, and if we haven’t eaten for three hours, we think we’re starving. You’re not starving – human beings can go for 30 days without food.

My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.