Quotes About Adversity

Fear is one thing. To let fear grab you and swing you around by the tail is another.

If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I wouldn't pass it around. Wouldn't be doing anybody a favour. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't say embrace trouble. That's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say, meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it.

Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer.

You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe - when it knocked down our buildings it did not replace them with anything more offensive than rubble. We did that.

Blessings never come in pairs; misfortunes never come alone.

They sicken of the calm that know the storm.

To persevere in one's duty and to be silent is the best answer to calumny.

Canada is not a country for the cold of heart or the cold of feet.

Business is a combination of war and sport.

The Bell System is like a damn big dragon. You kick it in the tail, and two years later, it feels it in its head.

It is a good thing to learn caution by the misfortunes of others.

Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let's love turbulence and use it for change.

Turbulence is a life force. It is opportunity. Let's love turbulence and use it for change.

One of the dreariest spots on life's road is the point of conviction that nothing will ever again happen to you.

Talents are best nurtured in solitude: character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen.

Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify: but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim for himself.

You don't know what pressure is until you play for $5 with only $2 in your pocket.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate ... at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in a maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, let up, or slow up.

Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by traffic from both sides.

He who walks in the middle of the road gets hit from both sides.

One of the things my life has taught me is how important it is to try to say, "I love you" in ways that can be preserved, looked at, and read when you are alone or when there is adversity or when circumstances bring separation. In any case, . . . saying "I love you" is one of the "secrets" of the happy marriage that Ronnie and I have shared. Ronnie's letters move me to this day. They are his gift to me across the years, and throughout the decades of love.

As to moral courage, I have very rarely met with the two o'clock in the morning kind. I mean unprepared courage, that which is necessary on an unexpected occasion, and which, in spite of the most unforeseen events, leaves full freedom of judgement and decision.