Quotes About Adversity

The man who can smile when everything seems to go against him shows that he is made of winning material, for no ordinary man can do this. Carlyle says that some people are rich in the power to be miserable. Such people seem to have a genius for radiating mental poison. They project their gloom into your mind in spite of your efforts to protect yourself. They insist that they were born so, that they cannot help having the "blues" and being despondent.

Tis easy enough to be pleasant when life flows on like a song, But the man worthwhile is the man with a smile when everything goes dead wrong.

Who would back you in a race While defeat is in your face?

Don't run about and tell acquaintances that you have been unfortunate; people do not like to have unfortunate men for acquaintances.

The disgrace is not in falling, but in not rising every time you fall.

poverty is the open-mouthed hell which yawns beneath civilization, we

The true way to conquer circumstances is to be a greater circumstance yourself.

It is a law of nature, said Herodotus, "that faint-hearted men should be the fruit of luxurious countries; for we never find that the same soil produces delicacies and heroes.

What would you do, if you were besieged in a place entirely destitute of provisions? As long as there was anything to eat in the enemy's camp, answered Napoleon, "I should not be at all concerned. A will finds a way.

He could see Bonzo's anger growing hot. Hot anger was bad. Ender's anger was cold, and he could use it. Bonzo's was hot, and so it used him.

I will remember this, thought Ender, when I am defeated. To keep dignity, and give honor where it's due, so that defeat is not disgrace. And I hope I don't have to do it often.

It will hurt. said Petra. But let's make the most of what we have, and not let future pain ruin present happiness.

I don't care how much you eat, Ender, self-cannibalism won't get you out of this school.

I have to win this now, and for all time, or I'll fight it every day and it will get worse and worse.

It is in the turmoil of chaos that we discover what, if anything, we are.

The only teacher that's worth anything to you is your enemy.

From now on the enemy is more clever than you. From now on the enemy is stronger than you. From now on you are always about to lose.

I want to be the kind of boy you are, thought Bean. But I don't want to go through what you've been through to get there.

I'm hurting you to make you a better soldier in every way. To sharpen your wit. To intensify your effort. To keep you off balance, never sure what's going to happen next, so you always have to be ready for anything, ready to improvise, determined to win no matter what. I'm also making you miserable.

Whatever your gravity is when you get to the door, remember?the enemy's gate is down . If you step through your own door like you're out for a stroll, you're a big target and you deserve to get hit. With more than a flasher.

Knocking him down won the first fight. I wanted to win all the next ones, too. So they'd leave me alone.

You don't want to give God the credit because you don't think he exists. But if you're going to blame him for all the crap, kid, you got to give him credit for what grows from that fertilized soil.

Humanity does not ask us to be happy. It merely asks us to be brilliant on its behalf. Survival first, then happiness as we can manage it.

Knocking him down won the first fight. I wanted to win all the next ones, too. So they'd leave me alone.