Quotes About Adversity

From my first day inside, I recognized that this odd coupling-housing leprosy patients with federal convicts- would make a great story

Jimmy always preached' Charge a pistol. Run from a rifle

Don't let it bring you down. It's only castles burning, find someone who's turning, and you will come around.

In my life I have had various health threats: polio, seizures, a brain aneurysm. None of these things has really changed me much, although it is hard to say for sure. These are events that are part of my life. They make me who I am. I am thankful for them. They are scary.

Ill-fortune carries with it a stench and leaves a wide berth around its victims,

It is only after one is in trouble that one realizes how little sympathy and kindness there are in the world.

Sometimes shit happens even if you have a shit shield

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.

The brave man is not the one who has no fears, he is the one who triumphs over his fears.

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

I never lose, I either win or learn

There are few misfortunes in this world that you cannot turn into a personal trimuph if you have the iron will and the neccessary skill.

I realized that they could take everything from me except my mind and my heart. They could not take those things. Those things I still had control over. And I decided not to give them away.

Let your courage rise with danger.

When you are young and strong...you can stay alive on your hatred"....but realized later "They can take everything from me except my mind and heart" Nelson Mandela from Long Walk to Freedom

I did not have an unlimited library to choose from on Robben Island. We had access to many unremembered mysteries and detective novels and all the works of Daphne du Maurier, but little more.

Men have different capacities and react differently to stress. But the stronger ones raised up the weaker ones, and both became stronger in the process.

Prison is designed to break one's spirit and destroy one's resolve. To do this, the authorities attempt to exploit every weakness, demolish every initiative, negate all signs of individuality--all with the idea of stamping out that spark that makes each of us human and each of us who we are.

Difficulties break some men but make others

Don't Judge a person by his success stories, but only with how many times the person stood up, after falling down.

The human body has an enormous capacity for adjusting to trying circumstances. I have found that one can bear the unbearable if one can keep one's spirit strong, even when one's body is being tested. Strong convictions are the secret of surviving deprivation. Your spirit can be full even when your stomach is empty.

If wealth is a magnet, poverty is a kind of repellent.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the TRIUMPH over it