resilience quotes

Life is hard. After all, it kills you.

The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.

You can’t stop everything from happening. But we’ve gotten to a point where we’re certainly trying. If a car doesn’t have four hundred air bags in it, then it’s no good.

I don’t believe in the school of hard knocks, although I’ve had them. All that stuff about whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is so not true. Do you know what makes you stronger? When people treat you and your art with dignity.

My life as a child did not prepare me for the fact that the world is full of cruel and bitter things.

I’ve played with IVs before, during and after games. I’ve played with a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a torn shoulder, a fractured tooth, a severed lip, and a knee the size of a softball. I don’t miss 15 games because of a toe injury that everybody knows wasn’t that serious in the first place.

The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there… and still on your feet.

You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.

There are certain things that bother me and certain things that don’t. Personal attacks on me? I think I’m just so used to it.

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

I do believe in the old saying, ‚What does not kill you makes you stronger.‘ Our experiences, good and bad, make us who we are. By overcoming difficulties, we gain strength and maturity.

If there’s one thing that’s certain in business, it’s uncertainty.

I probably wouldn’t have made it this far if I were a refugee.

I have practically no private life. I’m already used to this and ready for it. Yes, sometimes it is hard, but it is the choice I made.

If you have the ability to pick yourself up by the bootstraps and start over, you come out stronger because you learn from whatever mistakes you made.

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

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

There are going to be good days and bad days. Bottom line.

My life is a struggle.

Serious illness doesn’t bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host.

Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition – such as lifting weights – we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.

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

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.

This lady is not for turning.

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

What’s coming will come and we’ll just have to meet it when it does.

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

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.

Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.

Most of my young years were spent under the boots of the military.

Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

Must is a hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet kernel.

Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building arks does.

Violent men have not been known in history to die to a man. They die up to a point.

There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

What starts the process, really, are laughs and slights and snubs when you are a kid. If your anger is deep enough and strong enough, you learn that you can change those attitudes by excellence, personal gut performance.

Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health.

All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.

You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.

Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement. Discouragement has a germ of its own, as different from trouble as arthritis is different from a stiff joint.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.

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

Feeling sorry for ourselves is the most useless waste of energy on the planet. It does absolutely no good. We can’t let our circumstances or what others do or don’t do control us. We can decide to be happy regardless.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself.

I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.

You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing.

I’m not the sort of person who gives up on things. The first time we crossed the Atlantic in the balloon, it crashed, and we went on and did the Pacific. First time we crossed the Atlantic in a boat, it sank, and we went on and got the record. So, generally speaking, we will pick ourselves up, brush ourselves down, and carry on.

From my close observation of writers… they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review.