Quotes About Adversity

I was in the orphanage in New Orleans until I was almost a year old. I don't think I ever got held by my mama, so that was completely and utterly traumatic. I think it was trauma from the first breath, and I think I've spent my whole life trying to heal from that trauma. So it shaped my brain.

I lived in South Africa until I was 11 when we first immigrated. My mom had sent me back there when I was 14 for summer vacation. I wasn't doing very well in school, my grades were slipping. I called my mom one day and told her that I wasn't coming back. I ended up staying there until I was 17 before coming back to North America.

I could've easily let the passing of my brother control how I live my life. But I was determined not to let him die in vain and to make a negative into a positive.

Canada has, at times, represented itself as a country in a valiant struggle against powerful and menacing agents that are indifferent to its special practices and sensibilities - most especially American culture. It's the old, outdated garrison mentality.

Poverty was my mother's midwife. She had her children in poverty. But she also found a road to bring us a sense of purpose, and she taught us how to be valiant in the face of oppression.

He is not valiant that dares die, but he that boldly bears calamity.

Being told you're too small and never going to make it is an opinion. And it's a valid opinion, and it's something you take in your stride.

Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.

I've probably failed more often than anybody else in Silicon Valley. Those don't matter. I don't remember the failures. You remember the big successes.

I was kidnapped by Sunni insurgents near Fallujah, in Iraq, ambushed by the Taliban in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, and injured in a car accident that killed my driver while covering the Taliban occupation of the Swat Valley in Pakistan.

I think, most of us, when we look back over our lives, see perhaps moments when everything was dangerous and precarious. We're making all these mistakes, and yet somehow we make it through. It's the making it through that that interests me. To go through the valley of trouble and come out the other side. That's what we all have to do.

In most parts of the world, starting a company that goes bust is dubbed a 'failure.' In Silicon Valley, we call this 'gaining experience.' We are willing to take the risks that are inherent for innovation.

Everybody in Hollywood has to beat the 'no' - and if you write code in Silicon Valley, or if you design cars in Detroit, if you manage hedge funds in Lower Manhattan, you also have to learn to beat the 'no.'

The only way to get to that next peak is to be ready for that next valley. Being raised Irish, you know to always be ready for the bad times.

When I was 11 I was scouted by the Thames Valley under-21s. It was really daunting. I was scared for my life when I went in to bat. The first ball hit me on the leg, the second ball got me out, so it wasn't great but it made me stronger.

All of life is peaks and valleys. Don't let the peaks get too high and the valleys too low.

As you go through life, you've got to see the valleys as well as the peaks.

You hit those valleys sometimes and it's really frustrating. It's like getting stuck in traffic on the freeway. But there's not much you can do about it.

'Precious' is strangely uplifting. It goes down into the valley but it also goes to the mountain tops. A lot of difficult realities are explored in 'Precious,' but the peaks make the valleys and the valleys make the peaks.

Life is a roller coaster. There are ups; there are downs. There are hills; there are valleys, peaks, and so on.

A lot of guys go through ups and downs in their careers, and sometimes those downs are like horrific and they can really change you. A lot. And so when you go out there and do something like score a touchdown and have a good game, you appreciate it so much more when you've been through those valleys in life.

Listen to 100 of my sermons, and 80 or 90 of them will be about overcoming our struggles and the lessons God teaches us in valleys he allows us to enter.

Football is a game of ebbs and flows, there's mountains and valleys through a full season, through a game, through a quarter, through a practice week.

Positive thinking is a valuable tool that can help you overcome obstacles, deal with pain, and reach new goals.