Quotes About Resilience

When my mother told my father what had happened, he didn't want to believe it. "Nobody ever wants to believe what happens to the Jews," she said, "not even us.

These are hopeful stories from hopeless times. Without them the grief of this nation would tip it into the sea.

Each death was like a hook through my skin, pulling me always backward to that moment. Already I felt the strain of those deaths, those visions, tearing at the fabric of who and where and when I was.

I wanted their stories to be a reminder that, no matter what insignia the behemoths may wear, or what philosophy they may spout, a bully is a bully, and no matter how much they beat you down, as long as you've got one finger left, you can still poke the bastards in the eye. -Blackhearts: Author's Introduction: A Finger In The Eye: By Nathan Long

For some people, the pain and effort of exercise makes it difficult. But others live off of getting that second wind and the improvements to their body, and so they use that to push through the pain.

We must take the long view—every defeat is a victory in a war of attrition.

All order is doomed, yet the battle is worth while.

The greater a child's terror, and the earlier it is experienced, the harder it becomes to develop a strong and healthy sense of self.

What is required for many of us, paradoxical though it may sound, is the courage to tolerate happiness without self-sabotage.

Hardness," I was learning, was the supreme virtue among recon Marines. The greatest compliment one could pay to another was to say he was hard. Hardness wasn't toughness, nor was it courage, although both were part of it. Hardness was the ability to face an overwhelming situation with aplomb, smile calmly at it, and then triumph through sheer professional pride.

Your job is to be the hardest motherfucker in your platoon," he said while pointing at me across the desk. "Do that, and everything else will fall into place." He added that I was assigned to Bravo Company, call sign Hitman, and wished me luck.

The rule of captivity is to bend, not break.

Marine training is essentially a psychological battle against the instinct for self-preservation.

You need discipline most, when it's hardest to muster.

Infantry Marines live only and forever in the real world.

Our goals were redundancy and mutual support.

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers—stern and wild ones—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.

Let the black flower blossom as it may!

All his life long, he had been learning how to be wretched, as one learns a foreign tongue; and now, with the lesson thoroughly at heart, he could with difficulty comprehend his little airy happiness.

She could no longer borrow from the future to ease her present grief.

Do anything, save to lie down and die!

Hope was all that stood between them and death.

Chase's ability to adjust his manner of leadership to the needs of his men begs comparison to one of the greatest and most revered leaders of all time, Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Awfulness can happen at any time. That's what's so awful.