Quotes About Adversity

Survival, though, means more than going on. It means understanding the past and finding a way to subdue it, to reconcile it, to overcome it.

The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

Look closely and you will see Almost everyone carrying bags Of cement on their shoulders That's why it takes courage To get out of bed in the morning And climb into the day

Hard-bitten had a double meaning: bitten hard by life, like her, or clamping meanly down on other people. But, as though belying his thoughts, she said, "I hope your days are good." "If only. My eyes, you know, are like Swiss cheese, the doctor says. I see through the holes.

Don't be afraid of the dark." She tousled his hair tolerantly. "I've never known a man who wasn't scared of more things than I was.

for their own self-protection, great figures like Socrates, Spinoza, or Galileo in every generation and culture must somehow learn to camouflage their superiority or suffer the painful consequences.

It's not like they can take anything from me,' he says later, back with his homeboys in Juvenile Hall. 'Ain't got nothing to give. Nothin' but time, that is. And I been doin' time my whole life, one way or the other.

They do horrible, unchildish things because they they have had very horrible, unchildish lives.

Their decision to keep above the fray made sense. Franklin and Washington were thin-skinned and recoiled from ad hominem attacks. Neither was particularly adept at defending a proposal in a contentious up-or-down vote, especially a proposition they helped to craft. Franklin might begin fiddling with the text and Washington might lose his temper.

The Pobble who has no toesHad once as many as we;When they said, "Some day you may lose them all"—He replied, "Fish fiddle-de-dee!"

Laughter is the stubborn reward of grim times.

True character arises from a deeper well than religion. It is the internalization of moral principles of a society, augmented by those tenets personally chosen by the individual, strong enough to endure through trials of solitude and adversity. The principles are fitted together into what we call integrity, literally the integrated self, wherein personal decisions feel good and true. Character is in turn the enduring source of virtue. It stands by itself and excites admiration in others.

Without all that young stuff, Stamford, you will die a slave. And it will not be a pretty die.

Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.

For the increase in the number of my Brennan cousins," Conall remarked dryly, "we must thank the potato.

Notice how those who have medicated away their hardships with illegal drugs, alcohol, or sex can seem immature. They may look forty-five, but they have the character of an adolescent. Find a person who has weathered storms rather than avoided them and you will find someone who is wise.

You don't really know who you are until you have gone through suffering. We can measure our spiritual growth by the way we behave under pressure.

Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.

When you get to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.

When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.

In the midst of the whirlwind, those who stand with God, weather the storm.

All have problems. But those who rely on God breathe easier. How? They don't allow mistakes in the world to define who they are. Instead, they lean on 'what' they are and the worries of the world bounce off them.

Affliction is a good man's shining time.