Quotes About Adversity

Thus the Emperor penguin is compelled to undertake all kinds of hardships because his children insist on developing so slowly, very much as we are tied in our human relationships for the same reason. It is of interest that such a primitive bird should have so long a childhood.

For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me Scott; for a Winter Journey, Wilson; for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen: and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time.

When a door opens not to your knock, consider your reputation.

When danger approaches, sing to it.

He who sees the calamity of other people finds his own calamity light

All sunshine makes the desert.

I must shape my own coat according to my cloth, but it will not be after the fashion of this world, God willing, but fit for me.

before dawn of another day I would be swimming for my life in mid-ocean, under water and on the surface, in a temperature of 28 degrees Fahrenheit!

Be bold! That's one way Of getting through life. So I turn upon her And point out that, Faced with the wickedness Of things, she does not shiver.

Heart, my heart, so battered with misfortune far beyond your strength, up, and face the men who hate us. Bare your chest to the assault of the enemy, and fight them off. Stand fast among the beamlike spears. Give no ground; and if you beat them, do not brag in open show, nor, if they beat you, run home and lie down on your bed and cry. Keep some measure in the joy you take in luck, and the degree you give way to sorrow. All our life is up-and-down like this.

It's the rough side of the mountain that's the easiest to climb; the smooth side doesn't have anything for you to hang on to.

But not unusual, for good girls sometimes come to bad ends.

Dolores liked that story. Men were wolves and practical women took the knife to them, and those wolves, those sharp-toothed men, they didn't come back after that.

Adelia, you must not quail. You are confounding inhumanity.

We have little power to choose what happens, but we have complete power over how we respond.

is a way of being that gives you the resources to deal with the ups and downs of life

Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. It's the mastery of fear. It's about getting up one more time than we fall down.

We all have within us the ability to move from struggle to grace.

Maybe I could rewrite the fairy tale of my life, transforming every blow to the head, and every cut to the cunt, and every crucified doll into some kind of an initiation.

One must not try to trick misfortune, but resign oneself to it with good grace.

You will never make the crab walk straight.

Poverty, the most fearful monster that ever drew breath.

A man should be able to stand up under any disaster for his country's good.

Sir, sir what good are words? They are of no avail with wild beasts of this sort. Don't you know how they have just washed us down--and with no very fragrant soap!