Quotes About Adversity

In life things often go wrong, and the future rarely happens the way you think it will.

Things began to go wrong when I was seventeen. My band's twenty-year-old lead guitarist earned seven years in jail for a drug-fuelled spree of violence. The other band members were quick to let go of their musical dreams, but I never did. They did the 'mature' thing: after writing off the band as a teenage fantasy, they got real jobs and made some money. They called it growing up. I called it giving up.

So difficult people don't just come into our lives randomly. We are drawn to them, or they are drawn to us, to help us learn our spiritual lessons. They appear in our lives because they have certain qualities that can help us on our spiritual journey. Difficult people have just what we need to help us overcome our character flaws. We

Philosophers should be offered condolences rather than encouragement.

Nietzsche tells us: be strong. What does not kill me makes me stronger.

realizes a huge metal tray cart has overturned. The floor is piled with plastic trays and debris. The moment of shock evaporates. People help the cafeteria workers pull the cart upright and slide trays back into the racks. Last night's shotgun blast tramples through Adrian's thoughts. The

Childhood is what you spend the rest of your life trying to overcome …

Every good story challenges the protagonist, and the reader.

Mark Rubinstein

When we are afraid we ought not to occupy ourselves with endeavoring to prove that there is no danger, but in strengthening ourselves to go on in spite of the danger.

The prevailing mood was one of sullen desperation; poverty fluttered along behind us like a rag caught in the carriage door.

Real life doesn't skip the rough stuff.

Life following Christ is not supposed to be a ride. It's supposed to be a fight because there is a very specific villain—and if we don't fight, he wins. If our Christianity aims only for pretty and pleasant and happy and rich, the Enemy becomes the victor.

how can you survive what life throws at you if you cannot laugh and love, and are they not the same thing?

The Alps had taught him not to fret and whine at difficult circumstances. It was a waste of energy.

Try to be grateful for every setback or tragedy, because by living through them, you become stronger.

how can you survive what life throws at you if you cannot laugh and love,

It was one of the other things his father had told him about surviving the gulag. The worse it was, the less you thought. You had to figure out a way to go down inside yourself, find a place no one could get to, and just be. Like a bear hibernating.

and nose and pulled his cap down low over his eyes. But the snow now rode on a shuddering gale. It pounded him, found the collar of his coat, and crawled down his back. It stung his knuckles through his mittens and gnawed at the exposed right side of his face until his skin was raw and then numb.

Mark T. Sullivan

shallows, grabbed the bow rope, and held on for dear life. "Give me

When you can remember not having eaten in days and having no hope of eating tomorrow . . . when you can remember that feeling, you just work harder to make sure you never feel it again.

Don't chew on the bad things that happen to you, dear. Try to see the beauty in every cruelty. It sets you free. Forgive hurt if you want to heal a broken heart. Try to be grateful for every setback or tragedy, because by living through them, you become stronger. I

Awww, well, my young friend, how can you survive what life throws at you if you cannot laugh and love, and are they not the same thing?