Quotes About Adversity

The reasons for depression are not so interesting as the way one handles it, simply to stay alive.

For a long time, for years, I have carried in my mind the excruciating image of plants, bulbs, in a cellar, trying to grow without light, putting out white shoots that will inevitably wither.

What we have not has made us what we are. Those surface consolations have to go.

Nothing gets easier as one gets older. Everything is harder, even buttoning one's slipper!

Not happiness, perhaps, but something like New England itself—struggle, occasional triumph over adversity, above all the power to endure and to be renewed. For here the roses grow beside the granite.

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.

Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.

The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they don't know my story...

Anything that works against you can also work for you once you understand the Principle of Reverse.

Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.

Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise.

While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated.

She comprehended the perversity of life, that in the struggle lies the joy.

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

Just like moons and suns, With certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise.

Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.

When things were very bad his soul just crawled behind his heart and curled up and went to sleep

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

Hope for the best, be prepared for the worse. Life is shocking, but you must never appear to be shocked. For no matter how bad it is it could be worse and no matter how good it is it could be better.

Still I'll rise.

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise.

Like most children, I thought if I could face the worst danger voluntarily, and triumph, I would forever have power over it.

You can't get too high for somebody to bring you down.