Quotes About Adversity

If I wished to shake this tree with my hands, I should not be able to do so. But the wind, which we do not see, troubles and bends it as it lists. We are worst bent and troubled by invisible hands.

Life is hard to bear: but do not pretend to be so sensitive! We are all of us pretty sturdy asses and she-asses.

Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

You have about as much chance as a starving Ukrainian kulak now that Moscow's clapped on the interdict.

Reduce man to a single type and he is certain to succumb, sooner or later, to the inevitable disaster that his one type cannot cope with.

Ni jedan život ne te?e tako jednoliko i blago da ne bi jednom udario na nasip, da se jednom ne bi po?eo vrtjeti u krugu ili da mu ljudi ne bi po?eli bacati kamenje u bistru vodu. Svakome se, dakle, nešto doga?a - i moramo nastojati da nam voda ostane bistra kako bi se nebo i zemlja mogli u njoj ogledati.

Christianity, unlike any other religion in the world, begins with catastrophe and defeat. Sunshine religions and psychological inspirations collapse in calamity and wither in adversity. But the Life of the Founder of Christianity, having begun with the Cross, ends with the empty tomb and victory.

The crosses from the outside are bearable; the double-crosses inside are insoluble

The temptation that comes from without does not necessarily weaken character; indeed, when conquered, it affords an opportunity for holiness to increase.

There is no door through which tears do not pass.

The Divine Savior never said to His Apostles: "Be good and you will not suffer" but He did say: "In this world you shall have tribulation.

Character is to some extent judged by what a man does with his falls. A pig falls into the mud and stays there; a sheep falls in and climbs out.

Le courage ne consiste pas à ne point être ému en face d'un danger, mais à surmonter son émotion: c'est pour cela qu'un enfant peut être aussi courageux qu'un homme.

Life is like a rose. A few thorns don't make it any less beautiful.

Some things in life you just have to erase. If you're going to go on with your existence, you have to drop them into a deep dark well somewhere in your soul, and trudge onward as if they never happened.

In that moment I found a power beyond any I'd had before, a will and a determination I would never have need if not for Lucinda, a fortitude I hadn't been able to find for a lesser cause.

Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me

Gail Carson Levine

Sometimes troubles make us stronger. We put things in perspective and find priorities.

She was her steady self again, the one about whom Nonie had said, I admire that woman. Despite all her adversities, Beryl Jones manages to stay in control her days.

Faced with defeat, they judged their actions against their consciences and ruled themselves righteous.

I have been in my bed for five weeks, oppressed with weakness and other infirmities from which my age, seventy four years, permits me not to hope release. Added to this (proh dolor! [O misery!]) the sight of my right eye — that eye whose labors (dare I say it) have had such glorious results — is for ever lost. That of the left, which was and is imperfect, is rendered null by continual weeping.

Her physical and emotional experiences, which thwarted these ambitions, were powerful but not unique. Many people suffer from illness, accidents, a bad marriage and divorce. It was Kahlo's responses to the experiences of her life, rather than the experiences themselves, combined with her rare talent for articulating them visually and giving meaning to them that distinguish Kahlo as a towering cultural figure.