Quotes About Adversity

Anger rose in me. Didn't they know how hard I'd been working to overcome my family background? Now all my efforts were wasted.

No matter what I did and where I went, the Cultural Revolution followed me.

Our great leader, Chairman Mao, has taught us, 'Every reactionary is the same; if you do not hit him, he will not fall. This is also like sweeping the floor; as a rule, where the broom does not reach, the dust will not vanish by itself.'" Her

Life was very hard, so hard that I could hardly breathe sometimes

Well, you know the old saying. 'The wheel of fate makes a full turn every sixty years,'" An Yi said. "It's their turn to suffer now.

Once my life had been defined by my goals: to be a da-dui-zhang, to participate in the exhibition, to be a Red Guard. They seemed unimportant to me now. Now my life was defined by my responsibilities. I had promised to take care of my family, and I would renew that promise every day. I

If you are stuck sweating on a sandbar in the river of your life you've got to find a way back into those swift effervescent currents of joy that are your birthright.

People love to believe they're so much better than they are. People who have never been tested, they're so quick to judge. What do they really know about themselves? All I'm saying is this: unless you've been there, found yourself with nothing, nothing but your own talent, you can't tell me you wouldn't do it the same way, too.

God made Labrador in six days. And on the seventh, he threw rocks at it. —Old Newfoundland saying

The protagonist of folktale is always, and intensely, a young person moving through ordeals into adult life. . . . and this is why there are no wicked stepchildren in the tales.

No one should have to dance backward all of their lives.

Just when you think you've hit rock bottom, someone will hand you a shovel.

Accept that some days you're the bug, and some days you're going to be the windshield.

Sometimes you have to say, 'Today's just not my day.

A bad day for your ego is a great day for your soul.

Something horrible may have happened to you, but you always have a choice in how you respond to it. You have the "Why does bad stuff always happen to me? I'm never going to find happiness" option, and the "This sucks but I'm going to learn and evolve from it, examine what role I played in it, and ultimately it will help me become the person I'm supposed to be" option.

The author emphasizes the importance of self-forgetfulness when his statistics were marred by a bad outing. He forgot all of that outing to such an extent that he quipped, "What was my name?

You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.

The author relates that Mickey Mantle did not expect to play one day and showed up extremely hung over. He was nevertheless called on to pitch and smashed a towering home run to an enthusiastic ovation. He related to his teammates, "Those people don't know how tough that was.

Laugh whenever you can. Keeps you from killing yourself when things are bad. That and vodka.

Do you know why happily ever after is a lie?" Snow asked. "Because life is change.

That is a trial I must face," Veka said. "No, that is a multiheaded snake thing, Jig snapped.

Jig had never worried about pursuing his destiny. Generally, destiny pursued him. Then it knocked him down and kicked him a few times for good measure.

Don't worry about a lost finger," Darnak said gently. "Many an adventurer has lost a finger, or worse, and still gone on to accomplish great things. Have you heard the song of . . . I forget his name. The little guy with nine fingers, from the middle continent. The one involved with that ring business a while back.