Quotes About Resilience

one grief after another—her brothers, Father, the money, not to mention the war itself—had taken its toll on her and she had allowed herself to be worn down on the grindstone of Mother.

Men fell down. Women stood up.

You were very brave,' Nancy said, with the same encouraging indifference

I know that human triumph is never fully redemptive.

What is the deepest loss that you have suffered? If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine. —from Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29 Rainer Maria Rilke

Those times when I couldn't stand what I was, and I didn't know how I could possibly be something else.

No matter how your world falls apart—and honey, that's what happens: we all build ourselves a world, and then it falls apart—but no matter how that happens, you still have the kind heart you've had since you were a child, and that's what really counts. And I will always be here for you, my butzalah. I love you, Katherine.

Do whatever it takes to make your life more worth living...just don't be mean.

I was still alive. Ha! Take that kidnappers. Still alive. Maybe it was my butt that was feeding me. I always thought it was kind of round. I bet my body was eating up all the fat stores from my butt now. Yeah. See, having a big ass is a good thing. Good, good, good. They should put that in magazines. Why diet? Why stay thin? If you ever get kidnapped and left for dead, your fat ass could save your life!

Sometimes when they all talk I feel like shouting, 'so your life went wrong—why assume mine will? Maybe it'll work for me!' But this would only invite a pitying smile, and a 'she'll learn' comment. You can't win with them. You can't even compete.

There was no despondency when she fell asleep that night; nor was there hope when she awoke in the morning.

But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.

She was just having a good cry all to herself.

The bird that would soar about the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings.

Robert's going had some way taken the brightness, the color, the meaning, out of everything. The conditions of her life were in no way changed, but her whole existence was dulled, like a faded garment which seems to be no longer worth wearing.

Well, for instance, when I left her today, she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. 'The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.

My sudden, unforeseen capitulation had knocked me backward, and I had nothing to hold on to. My internal weather was eerily calm, as if in a tornado's aftermath, birdsong, sunshine, supersaturated colors, wreckage all around, and myself, dazed and limping.

Everything that has ever happened to me is still all with me.

And Dan, who had maintained all during our schism that we were both insane, welcomed me back as if nothing had ever happened, still his same warm, laconic, wry self.

She was fierce and opaque, and not breakable.

As Abraham Lincoln once said, 'Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

Did you think that rats do not have hearts? Wrong. All living things have a heart. And the heart of any living thing can be broken.

Pea was aware suddenly of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting, always, with the light. She did not like the rat. She would neverlike the rat, but she knew what she must do to save her own heart.

Perhaps what matters when all is said and done is not who puts us down but who picks us up.