Selected hardship quotes

1. We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.

2. Thank God, I have my work, but instead of earning money by it, I need money to be able to work; that is the difficulty. I think there are no signs in my work that indicate that I shall fail. And I am not a person who works slowly or tamely. Drawing becomes a passion with me, and I throw myself into it more and more. I do not have great plans for the future; if for a moment I feel rising within me the desire for a life without care, for prosperity, each time I go fondly back to the trouble and the cares, to a life full of hardship, and think: It is better so; I learn more from it, and make progress. This is not the road on which one perishes. I only hope the trouble and the cares will not become unbearable, and I have confidence I shall succeed in earning enough to keep myself, not in luxury, but as one who eats his bread in the sweat of his brow.

3. Here today we huddle tight As the darkest heathens might The snow falls chilly on our skin The snow is forcing its way in. Hush, snow, come in with us to dwell: We were thrown out by Heaven as well.

4. The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long.

5. Locations are all tough, all miserable. I never left the sound stage for 18 years at Warners. We never went outside the studio, not even for big scenes.

6. I'm not as soft or as generous a person as I would be if the world hadn't changed me.

7. Ought to be easy, ought to be simple enough: Man meets woman, and they fall in love, But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough. You got to learn to live with what you can't rise above.

8. I'm a little hoarse tonight. I've been living in Chicago for the past two months, and you know how it is, yelling for help on the way home every night. Things are so tough in Chicago that at Easter time, for bunnies the little kids use porcupines.

9. I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.

10. I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war.

11. Oh courage...oh yes! If only one had that...Then life might be livable, in spite of everything.

12. The return to solid values is always hard... Distress, panic, and hard times have marked our pathway in returning to solid values.

13. This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur.

14. A cold coming they had of it, at this time of the year; just the worst time of the year to take a journey, and specially a long journey, in.

15. The burden which is well borne becomes light.

16. You would not easily guess All the modes of distress Which torture the tenants of earth; And the various evils, Which like so many devils, Attend the poor souls from their birth.

17. Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth.

18. Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?

19. Life is just a bowl of pits.

20. This life is a hard fact; work your way through it boldly, though it may be adamantine; no matter, the soul is stronger.

21. The heavy casualties, the constant retreat, the shortage of food and munitions, the difficulty of receiving reinforcements... all this had a very bad effect on morale. Many longed to get across the Volga, to escape the hell of Stalingrad.

22. Thank God, I have my work, but instead of earning money by it, I need money to be able to work; that is the difficulty. I think there are no signs in my work that indicate that I shall fail. And I am not a person who works slowly or tamely. Drawing becomes a passion with me, and I throw myself into it more and more. I do not have great plans for the future; if for a moment I feel rising within me the desire for a life without care, for prosperity, each time I go fondly back to the trouble and the cares, to a life full of hardship, and think: It is better so; I learn more from it, and make progress. This is not the road on which one perishes. I only hope the trouble and the cares will not become unbearable, and I have confidence I shall succeed in earning enough to keep myself, not in luxury, but as one who eats his bread in the sweat of his brow.

23. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.

24. It isn't right to be obedient only when things go well; it is much harder to be a good, obedient soldier when things go badly and times are hard. Obedience and faith at such time is a virtue.

25. In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing About the dark times.

26. When it's dark enough, you can see the stars.

27. In all the works on pedagogy that ever I read - and they have been many, big, and heavy - I don't remember that any one has advocated a system of teaching by practical jokes, mostly cruel. That, however, describes the method of our great teacher, Experience.

28. Alas! It is well written, 'The road to eminence lies through the cheap and exceedingly uninviting eating-houses.'

29. I tell you naught for your comfort, Yea, naught for your desire, Save that the sky grows darker yet And the sea rises higher.

30. Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, 'I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway.'

31. Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause a while from learning to be wise. There mark what ills the scholar's life assail - Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.

32. 'Face the brutes.' That is a lesson for all life-face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them.

33. Well, right now it seems that things are going very badly for me, have been doing so for some considerable time, and may continue to do so well into the future. But it is possible that everything will get better after it has all seemed to go wrong. I am not counting on it, it may never happen, but if there should be a change for the better I should regard that as a gain, I should rejoice, I should say, at last! So there was something after all!

34. I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did!

35. It is true that every day has its own evil, and its good too. But how difficult must life be, especially farther on when the evil of each day increases as far as worldly things go, if it is not strengthened and comforted by faith. And in Christ all worldly things may become better, and, as it were, sanctified.

36. Born down in a dead man's town; The first kick I took was when I hit the ground. You end up like a dog that's been beat too much 'Til you spend half your life just covering up.

37. I wouldn't give his troubles to a monkey on a rock.

38. I've seen Austratlia and I've lived on an asteroid and I'd take the asteroid.

39. I cannot keep silent, nor would it be proper, so many favours and graces has the Lord deigned to bestow on me in the land of my captivity. For after chastisement from God, and recognizing him, our way to repay him is to exalt him and confess his wonders before every nation under heaven.

40. Pregnant women and Vietnam vets, beggin on the freeway, bout as hard as it gets.

41. The head must bow, and the back will have to bend, Wherever the darkey may go; A few more days, and the trouble all will end, In the field where the sugar-canes grow. A few more days for to tote the weary load,- No matter, 't will never be light; A few more days till we totter on the road:- Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!

42. With the thermometer at 30 below zero and the wind behind him, a man walking on Main Street in Winnipeg knows which side of him is which.

43. 'You see the stuff he plays through, and you can't have anything but respect for him. It makes you want to play harder, play through stuff.'

44. If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

45. I put my faith in God, blessed and still breathin/And even though it's hard, that's who I believe in/Before I'm leavin, I'm askin the grievin - who do you believe in?

46. La vie est herissee de ces epines, et je n'y sais d'autre remede que de cultiver son jardin.

47. She remembered home as a place where there were always too many children, a cross man and work piling up around a sick woman.

48. We didn't come this far because we are made of sugar candy.

49. If the campaign is in summer the general must show himself greedy for his share of the sun and the heat, and in winter for the cold and the frost, and in all labours for toil and fatigue. This will help to make him beloved of his followers.

50. E si tot venta'ill freg'aura, L'amor qu'ins el cor mi pleu Mi ten caut on plus iverna.

51. people struggle, people fight for the simple pleasures in their lives but trouble comes from everywhere it's a little more than you can bear

52. After three days we reached land, and for twenty-eight days journeyed through uninhabited country, and the food ran out and hunger overtook them; and one day the steersman began saying: 'Why is it, Christian? You say your God is great and all-powerful; then why can you not pray for us? For we may perish of hunger; it is unlikely indeed that we shall ever see another human being.' In fact, I said to them, confidently: 'Be converted by faith with all your heart to my Lord God, because nothing is impossible for him, so that today he will send food for you on your road, until you be sated, because everywhere he abounds.' And with God's help this came to pass; and behold, a herd of swine appeared on the road before our eyes, and they slew many of them, and remained there for two nights, and the were full of their meat and well restored, for many of them had fainted and would otherwise have been left half dead by the wayside. And after this they gave the utmost thanks to God, and I was esteemed in their eyes, and from that day they had food abundantly.

53. '...like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car' --Unknown critic when commenting on his voice

54. life in tha hood is all good for nobody

55. In my chest I feel pain comin sudden storms/Life full of rain in this game watch for landstorms

56. And suddenly tha ghetto didn't seem so tough/And though we had it rough, we always had enough

57. I try to keep my head up, and still keep from gettin wet up/You know it's funny when it rains it pours

58. You can't complain you was dealt this/hell of a hand without a man, feelin helpless

59. And it's crazy, it seems it'll never let up, but/please... you got to keep your head up

60. I give a holla to my niggaz in the darkest corners/Roll a perfect blunt, and let me spark it for ya

61. See they ask me if I shed a tear, I ain't lie/See you gotta get high or die, cause even thugs cry

62. You don't know combat 'til crap runs down your leg.

63. Life is just a bowl of pits.

64. Victor: Get Stoic.

65. It's going to be brutal!

66. The more comfort the less courage there is.

67. 'If I were to say 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life.'

68. There is no education like adversity.

69. I've heard that story about kids are high naturally, but I've seen kids that aren't high, kids who've had the high taken out of them.

70. It takes a lot of punishment to be able to do anything to change the social order.

71. There are vivid memories from my childhood - what we had to go through because of low wages and the conditions, basically because there was no union. I suppose if I wanted to be fair I could say that I'm trying to settle a personal score. I could dramatize it by saying that I want to bring social justice to farm workers. But the truth is that I went through a lot of hell, and a lot of people did. If we can even the score a little for the workers then we are doing something. Besides, I don't know any other work I like to do better than this. I really don't.

72. Who would attain to summits still and fair, Must nerve himself through valleys of despair.

73. Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich starker.

74. We're enjoying sluggish times, and not enjoying them very much.

75. My soldiers can eat their waist belts, but my tanks need gas.

76. Women bear Crosses better than Men do, but bear Surprizes - worse.

77. Clyde: Your'e telling me. What about those first three nights, we had to light fires to keep the animals away.

78. Jack: Yeah, then we ran out of water. For three weeks we couldn't even take a bath.

79. My lodging is on the cold ground, And hard, very hard, is my fare, But that which grieves me more Is the coldness of my dear.

80. Were I laid on Greenland's Coast, And in my Arms embrac'd my Lass; Warm amidst eternal Frost, Too soon the Half Year's Night would pass.

81. In 1840 I was called from my farm to undertake the administration of public affairs and I foresaw that I was called to a bed of thorns.

82. I would hope to think that this is maybe hell. Maybe this is hell because then we could go on to something else. Because this ain't so bad. (1995)

83. Life is hard. After all, it kills you.

84. The easy, gentle, and sloping path...is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.

85. The most important qualification of a soldier is fortitude under fatigue and privation. Courage is only second; hardship, poverty and want are the best school for a soldier.

86. To have a right estimate of a man's character, we must see him in misfortune.

87. People say it's hard at the top, but it's even harder at the bottom.

88. He's engaged to be married to Stiffy Byng, and his long years of football should prove an excellent preparation for setting up house with her. The way I look at it is that when a fellow has had plug-uglies in cleated boots doing a Shuffle-off-to-Buffalo on his face Saturday after Saturday since he was a slip of a boy, he must get to fear nothing, not even marriage with a girl like Stiffy, who from early childhood has seldom let the sun go down without starting some loony enterprise calculated to bleach the hair of one and all.

89. He was either a man of about a hundred and fifty who was rather young for his years or a man of about a hundred and ten who had been aged by trouble.

90. Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.

91. 'If you are able to endure the hardship that you encounter, then there are benefits that you will reap.'

92. Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.

93. When the need arises - and it does - you must be able to shoot your own dog. Don't farm it out - that doesn't make it nicer, it makes it worse.

94. Trials never end, of course. Unhappiness and misfortune are bound to occur as long as people live, but there is a feeling now, that was not here before, and is not just on the surface of things, but penetrates all the way through: We've won it. It's going to get better now. You can sort of tell these things.

95. The toad beneath the harrow knows Exactly where each tooth point goes; The butterfly upon the road Preaches contentment to that toad.

96. Back to the Army again, sergeant, Back to the Army again: Out o' the cold an' the rain, sergeant, Out o' the cold an' the rain.

97. Before comfort had been squeezed out of the hard land, like blood out of stone.

98. Life is a four-letter word