Quotes About Resilience

Paul, ¿te acuerdas de que cuando estabas tan mal, antes de que comenzases el psicoanálisis, decías que quienes no plantan cara a su dolor se condenan a padecerlo sin fin?

Tout cela fera mal, mais plus tard seulement.

Sometimes, in the trenches, you get the sense of something, ancient. One trench we held, it had skulls in the side, embedded, like mushrooms. It was actually easier to believe they were men from Marlborough's army, than to think they'd been alive a year ago. It was as if all the other wars had distilled themselves into this war, and that made it something you almost can't challenge. It's like a very deep voice, saying; 'Run along, little man, be glad you've survived

We are Craiglockhart's success stories. Look at us. We don't remember, we don't feel, we don't think - at least beyond the confines of what's needed to do the job. By any proper civilized standard (but what does that mean now?) we are objects of horror. But our nerves are completely steady. And we are still alive.

So many pebbles on that beach—millions—all of them worn smooth by the sea's relentless grinding, but not this one. This one had stayed sharp.

We're going to survive—our songs, our stories. They'll never be able to forget us. Decades after the last man who fought at Troy is dead, their sons will remember the songs their Trojan mothers sang to them. We'll be in their dreams—and in their worst nightmares too.

Everyday there's something to survive.

We can't afford to be innocent Stand up and face the enemy It's a do or die situation We will be invincible

I believe in the power of weakness.

Gina] I got them Bad Old Cosmic C-Word Blues Again. [Mark] What does 'c-word' mean? [Gina] It means continuing to believe even when you don't feel it. Not letting go even when you can't find squat to hold onto. Going all the way from the beginning to the end.

nothing could easily erase the vision of Alice, crawling with lice, or Mama, eyes clenched shut under one more indignity, one more reminder of who we were, and what we had lost.

There was an inevitability about our kind of illness, a knowledge that lurking over the next hill was our private monster, which would grab us, shake us up and eventually deposit us in a hospital bed, doped to the gills with anti-psychotic medication, not remembering much of anything and not caring that we couldn't.

The first person to really speak to me was Andy, which was lucky, since he was the least crazy. He stank, but I suspected I did too. I never took off my clothes, always ready for fight or flight, needing to feel a little armoured. Deodorant was a luxury I couldn't afford, and I wasn't about to attempt a bath in a room that didn't lock, and which was always in high demand. Not to mention that there was no plug for the tub, or hand soap, or towels, or curtain, or mat.

And it still goes on. And we still turn away.

I've never had anyone's approval, so I've learned to live without it.

When mom and dad went to war the only prisoners they took were the children

He was tough as an antique ivory figurine, which has withstood the viscissitudes of centuries and can accept more.

It was strange, she thought, pedaling steadily, that it should require a holocaust to make her own life worth living.

Some nations and some people melt in the heat of crisis and come apart like fat in the pan. Others meet the challenge and harden. I think you're going to harden.

Whatever it is out there, is better equipped than you are. It can see better and hear better and smell better. All you're got on it is brains. Your only chance of getting it is

Since The Day, he had lived in the imperative present, not daring to plan beyond the next meal or the next day. This bit of paper tacked on peeling white paint abruptly enlarged his perspective, as if, stumbling through a black tunnel, he saw, or thought he saw, a chink of light. If Man retained faith in God, he might also retain faith in Man.

How can we cash out-of-town checks when don't know whether a town's still there?

They were both just too beautiful for the worlds they were cast down into.

Now, contemplating her battered body, he reflected that the violence it revealed was also something many women met daily.