Quotes About Adversity

Fire on the Mountain, by Anita Desai

Things look different from the middle of a flooded river.

Delphine witnessed awful things occurring yo other humans. Worse than that, she was powerless to alter their fate. It would be that way all her life- disasters, falling like chairs all around her, falling so close they disarranged her hair, but not touching her.

The prairie almost seemed to mock them with its beauty. Every inch of their skin was covered with bites upon bites. Their faces were purple and swollen. The mosquitoes bit through cloth, they bit through hair, they were implacable. Every being suffered. Yet they kept moving.

The world went on the same after all. The same things happened every morning. So what if they did not like her? She would go on the same.

No matter where we live on the planet or how difficult our situation seems to be, we have the ability to overcome and transcend our circumstances.

Nearly all a poor bastard's desires are punishable by jail.

They came from the four corners of the earth, driven by hunger, plague, tumors, and the cold, and stopped here. They couldn't go any futrther because of the ocean. That's France, that's the French people.

Chin up, Ferdinand, I kept saying to myself, to keep up my courage. What with being chucked out of everywhere, you're sure to find whatever it is that scares all those bastards so. It must be at the end of the night, and that's why they're so dead set against going to the end of the night.

Nothing can be explained. The world only knows how to do one thing, to roll over and kill you

Never be picky and choosy about means of escaping disembowelment, or waste your time trying to find reasons for the persecution you're a victim of. Escape is good enough for the wise.

the days had got to be like hoops, tighter and tighter to get through, and filled with bursts of shrapnel.

Ils dénichaient mainte fois une ration de pain (même déficient du point de vue diététique) afin de survivre quand même jusqu'à la prochaine typhoïde qui, elle, n'allait pas rater leur organisme affaibli.

Dès que dans l'existence ça va un tout petit peu mieux, on ne pense plus qu'aux saloperies.

Hay que pelear contra la desgracia con la misma fuerza que ella, hasta cansarla

Toute possibilité de lâcheté devient une magnifique espérance à qui s'y connaît. C'est mon avis. Il ne faut jamais se montrer difficile sur le moyen de se sauver de l'étripade, ni perdre son temps non plus à rechercher les raisons d'une persécution dont on est l'objet. Y échapper suffit au sage

If we didn't find it, we could always pass out at the foot of some wall and sleep for an hour, if there was an hour left. In this business of getting killed, it's no use being picky and choosy … You've got to act as if life were going on, and that lie is the hardest part of it.

La guerre avait brûlé les uns, réchauffé les autres, comme le feu torture ou conforte, selon qu'on est placé dedans ou devant. Faut se débrouiller voilà tout.

I am not afraid of storms, for I am leaning how to sail my ship.

Murder didn't just take one life; it stole the essence, will, and ease from everyone it touched. It took their old lives and left them to make their way in a completely new and uncertain world.

You can think you know what's best, what's right for you,and then all of a sudden something happens and turns your plans upside down

Girls without mothers either tried too hard or not hard enough; as they got older, they sometimes wore extra makeup, as if it could mask the fact they didn't know what to do, how to act.

I think life is supposed to be beautiful. We're supposed to try to make it that way . . . Sad, terrible things happen, but it's up to us to plant flowers. To bring forth the beauty.

Kids like that, who've had too much adversity young, have a real uphill battle. Quinn tries so hard, but she's something of a lost soul… she needs us to understand her." Rumer nodded.