Quotes About Adversity

Brad Gilbert

Something called 'the Oklahoma Standard' became known throughout the world. It means resilience in the face of adversity. It means a strength and compassion that will not be defeated.

If, as has been postulated before, heroism happens when courage meets circumstance, what if the circumstances are mundane?

Life is filled with trapdoors.

Every interesting thing I've ever done, every important thing I've ever done, every beneficial thing I've ever done, has been through a cascade of experiments and mistakes and failures,

precipitously,

Adam kept his body close. He wrapped the gunman up in a bear hug, his momentum still pushing him forward. They fell hard on the concrete, forcing Adam to let go. The gunman took advantage of the moment. He connected with an elbow to Adam's head. The stars came back. So did the nearly paralyzing pain. Nearly paralyzing. The

Or maybe she was being uncharitable. Maybe they were just trying to make the best out of their disappointment. The

Enid snorted. "I like you, Mr. Greene. And ah, what the hell. I can't see how it will help you and yet…I've seen some strange shit. And bad stays. Bad doesn't go away. You bury bad, it digs itself out. You throw bad in the middle of the ocean, it comes back at you like a tidal wave.

I'm afraid so,' he said. 'Ugh. Go on.' 'This whole thing is sort of like a boxing match,' Myron began. 'We've been ducking and diving and weaving and trying to keep away from our opponent. But we can only do that for so long. Eventually we have to throw a punch.' She made a face. 'Christ, that was lame.

Parenting. It ain't for sissies.

By the third hole, Jack had already dropped three strokes off the lead. His complexion was cartoon Casper. His eyes were as vacant as the Bates Motel, his shoulders slumped like bags of wet peat moss.

THE WAY YOU WALK IS THORNY, MY SON, THROUGH NO FAULT OF YOUR OWN.

And then we were all lifted and hurled away from there, down back the way we had come, around a bend, into a darkway we had never explored, over terrain that was ruined and filled with broken glass and rotting cables and rusted metal and far away further than any of us had ever been

Harlan Ellison

Even when they tell you "it can't be done, it's never been done, nobody's ever done it that way," all they're revealing about themselves is that they are limited, minimally-talented, inept, lazy to the point where they'll let the job walk out the door then have to stretch their imagination to figure out a way the job can be done, and they are not people you should be dealing with, because they can't solve their own problems, much less yours.

Stomachs that were merely cauldrons of acid, bubbling, foaming, always shooting spears of sliver-thin pain into our chests. It was the pain of the terminal ulcer, terminal cancer, terminal paresis. It was unending pain … And we passed through the cavern of rats. And we passed through the path of boiling steam. And we passed through the country of the blind. And we passed through the slough of despond. And we passed through the vale of tears. And we came, finally, to the ice caverns.

Du tust mir leid, Linah. Du bist dazu verflucht, ein wahrer Mann zu sein. Diese Welt ist für Kämpfer gemacht. Und das hast du nie gelernt.

One cannot answer for his courage when he has never been in danger. —FRANÇOIS, DUE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Maximes, 1665

Even in the midst of defeat, carry yourself professionally and maintain your discipline. That is the quickest way towards recovery.

James A. Mullartey from our 1st Platoon made it back to our lines. His story: The NVA had been shooting our wounded. One came up to him, stuck a pistol in his mouth, and fired. The bullet exited the back of his throat, knocked him out and they left him for dead. He survived and when he woke up at night he started crawling to us.

This is, perhaps, the ultimate terror: to be lost and alone in a hostile land where the next man you meet wants only to kill you.

Ernie Savage rose to fire on three enemy soldiers only a few feet away only to find that his rifle was empty. Savage says: "I didn't know what to do, so I just said 'Hi' and smiled. All three looked at me in confusion, but by then I had slipped in a fresh magazine and sprayed them.

Ridicule is not the way to cope with fear!