Quotes About Adversity

America is proud of what it does to its writers, the way it breaks and bedevils them, rendering them deluded or drunken or dead by their own hands. To overpower its tender spirits makes America feel tough. Careers are generally short.

Mind you true tragedy, supreme tragedy are not the worst in life, far from it: the squalid morass of unattempting impotence is the stifling of the soul and hope of man.

victory will never be found by taking the line of least resistance.

We can avoid all this trouble by throwing up the sponge, by sitting still and putting up with being fleeced. Then there will be lots of compliments about the good feelings which we have established in Europe and about what a very agreeable and friendly nation we are. But I think this is a pretty thin diet to give to the taxpayers of this country in their present circumstances. The

No doubt it is not popular to say these things,' Churchill had written to his wife on 26 September 1935, 'but I am accustomed to abuse and I expect to have a great deal more of it before I have finished. Somebody has to state the truth.' During

We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know that we will win. But I've come to believe we're integrating into a burning house.

IF YOU CAN'T FLY THEN RUN, IF YOU CAN'T RUN THEN WALK, IF YOU CAN'T WALK THEN CRAWL, BUT WHATEVER YOU DO YOU HAVE TO KEEP MOVING FORWARD." (MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Quietly endure, silently suffer and patiently wait.

One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized, cruelly mocked, but it an never be taken away unless it is surrendered.

This faith transforms the whirlwind of despair into a warm and reviving breeze of hope. The words of a motto which a generation ago were commonly found on the wall in the homes of devout persons need to be etched on our hearts: Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. There was no one there.

Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

The true measure of a man is not how he behaves in moments of comfort and convenience but how he stands at times of controversy and challenges.

First, the line of progress is never straight. For a period a movement may follow a straight line and then it encounters obstacles and the path bends. It is like curving around a mountain when you are approaching a city. Often if feels as though you were moving backwards, and you lose sight of your goal: but in fact you are moving ahead, and soon you will see the city again, closer by.

and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky...

The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.

we must constantly build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of fear

Only when it is dark enough can we see the stars.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others. In dangerous valleys and hazardous pathways, he will lift some bruised and beaten brother to a higher and more noble life.

It is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he should lift himself up by his own bootstraps. It is even worse to tell a man to lift himself up by his own bootstraps when somebody is standing on the boot....I had to tell him finally that nobody else in this country has lifted themselves by their own bootstraps alone, so why expect the black man to do it?

There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life's July and left standing amidst the piercing chill of an Alpine November.

Unfortunately, when hope diminishes, the hate is often turned most bitterly toward those who originally built up the hope.

I should have been reminded that disappointment produces despair and despair produces bitterness, and that the one thing certain about bitterness is its blindness. Bitterness

If you can't fly then run. If you can't run, then walk. And, if you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.

If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't, then crawl. But by all means, keep moving