Quotes About Adversity

The war was just a mile or so away, and I wondered at my simply walking to it, as I might walk to the market or to school. Today I will walk to the war.

Rebellion is necessary for development of character.

But I'll tell you something else, too. Something I've learned, the hard way. I guess"—Gram laughed a little—"I'm the kind of person who has to learn things the hard way. You've got to hold on. Hold on to people. They can get away from you. It's not always going to be fun, but if you don't—hold on—then you lose them.

Dicey felt a great weight settle on her shoulders. She tried to shrug it off, but it wouldn't move.

Perhaps the story of the human race is best understood as a journey through particularly hazardous terrain, in the dark, in a not very well-serviced vehicle, with a succession of drivers of varying competence, in assorted states of inebreiation

Neither harsh reviews, the contempt of equals nor the indifference of superiors can affect those who have once tapped the great heart of suffering humanity and found out what a goldmine it is.

In our springtime there is no better, there is no worse. Blossoming branches burgeon as they must. Some are long, some are short. Stay upright. Stay with life.

All was taken away from you: white dresses, wings, even existence.

Misfortune simply is. And when you wall it off, you do not have a clear conscience, because perhaps you are supposed to dedicate all your efforts and all your attention to it. And all you can say in your own defense is 'I want to live.

perché esistono dei mostri che nessuno può vincere in un combattimento faccia a faccia.

Destruction and suffering are the school of social thought.

Professional Ketman is reasoned thus: since I find myself in circumstances over which I have no control, and since I have but one life and that is fleeting, I should strive to do my best. I am like a crustacean attached to a crag on the bottom of the sea. Over me storms rage and huge ships sail; but my entire effort is concentrated upon clinging to the rock, for otherwise I will be carried off by the waters and perish, leaving no trace behind.

The scars you acquire by exercising courage, Will never make you feel inferior.

The great virtue in life is real courage that knows how to face facts and live beyond them.

Poverty is easy to bear if it is only temporary, easier still if it is an entirely voluntary burden.

Do you ever have days like that when nothing can go wrong? And then there are the days when can go right, Paula continued. When your hair won't lie down properly, and your stockings develop ladders at the worst possible moment, or your suspender breaks, and buttons fly off your gloves. When you say the wrong things to the wrong people, and spill coffee on your favorite frock, and break your reading glasses, and your cook asks for a raise - you know the kind of thing I mean, said Paula.

everybody had to find their own way of bearing things

There is a little silence which I dare not break, and then my hostess continues, more as if she were speaking to herself than to me, 'It's a queer thing how your life can fall to pieces about your head in a few minutes. It happened to me like that – at one moment I was a happy wife, loved and cosseted, without a care in the world, and five minutes later I was – alone

The troubles of our proud and angry dust Are from eternity, and shall not fail. Bear them we can, and if we can we must. Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.

Her eyes are full of tears and I realise that she must be comforted, so I proceed to explain my own particular method of "carrying on". None of us could bear the war if we allowed ourselves to brood upon the wickedness of it and the misery it has entailed, so the only thing to do is not to allow oneself to think about it seriously, but just to skitter about on the surface of life like a water beetle.

Sister Ferguson's method of dealing with misfortunes was to "wash them out". You never got anywhere if you sat down and brooded and felt sorry for yourself. The thing to do was to pretend you didn't care . . . then, after a bit, you found the pretence was true.

I had nothing to fall back on, so the smallest accident was a major disaster.

If we don't have troubles sent us we can generally make them for ourselves,' I reply. 'It's easy to make yourself miserable over trifles; I've done that sometimes, and then, quite suddenly, you get sent something to be sorry about, and you think looking back how happy I was yesterday, and I never knew it.

Often and often the slow difficult tears formed upon my lids and were brushed hastily aside lest they should fall upon my ledger and leave immortal trace of my weakness and misery. But that has passed, and now I am resigned to the life; I even find pleasure in it. The books—I have always loved books and I love them better now—are my greatest solace.