Quotes About Adversity

What did not kill me did not make me stronger, but spared me because i am stronger than others; but it killed others and the average population is now stronger because the weak are gone.

just avoiding being hurt by them would have been sufficient.

Most mistakes get worse when you try to correct them.

size hurts you at times of stress; it is not a good idea to be large during difficult times.

Many, like the great Roman statesman Cato the Censor, looked at comfort, almost any form of comfort, as a road to waste.1 He did not like it when we had it too easy, as he worried about the weakening of the will.

And when you take risks, insults by half-men (small men, those who don't risk anything) are similar to barks by nonhuman animals: you can't feel insulted by a dog.

Undercompensation from the absence of a stressor, inverse hormesis, absence of challenge, degrades the best of the best.

Diagoras asked, "Where were the pictures of those who prayed, then drowned?" The drowned worshippers, being dead, would have a lot of trouble advertising their experiences from the bottom of the sea.

The worst punishment was his state of helplessness in the face of risks and unfairness.

His losses were mounting

Anything that hinders one's survival at an individual, collective, tribal, or general level is, to me, irrational.

I don't particularly care about the usual. If you want to get an idea of a friend's temperament, ethics, and personal elegance, you need to look at him under the tests of severe circumstances, not under the regular rosy glow of daily life.

soccer moms try to eliminate the trial and error, the antifragility, from children's lives

many were occasionally crushed, and a few did bounce back repeatedly.

lose. His personal confidence was wiped out.

but we always came back more resilient than before. We are now invincible.

did not cost him anything—except the emotional drain.

separating some people from their fortune would simplify their lives and bring great benefits in the form of healthy stressors.

we should first make things more robust to defects and forecast errors, or even exploit these errors, making lemonade out of the lemons.

many people become long-term investors after they lose money, postponing

as to what to do in the event of losses.

Because deprivation is a stressor—and we know what stressors do when allowed adequate recovery.

Contrary to popular belief, these small, seemingly harmless stressors do not strengthen you; they can amputate part of your self.

Now, if you run away, all you need to be is just faster than me, not faster than the animal.