946 Resilience Quotes

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.

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.

In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

Of course my moods change, but the average is serenity. I have a firm faith in art, a firm confidence in its being a powerful stream which carries a man to a harbor, though he himself must do his bit too; at all events, I think it such a great blessing when a man has found his work that I cannot count myself among the unfortunate. I mean, I may be in certain relatively great difficulties, and there may be gloomy days in my life, but I shouldn't like to be counted among the unfortunate, nor would it be correct if I were.

The more ugly, older, more cantankerous, more ill and poorer I become, the more I try to make amends by making my colours more vibrant, more balanced and beaming.

When we are working at a difficult task and strive after a good thing, we are fighting a righteous battle, the direct reward of which is that we are kept from much evil. As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

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!

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.

The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.

For those of us who have been thrown into hell, mysterious melodies and the torturing images of a vanished beauty will always bring us, in the midst of crime and folly, the echo of that harmonious insurrection which bears witness, throughout the centuries, to the greatness of humanity.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.

Adaptation to one's environment makes for a sort of survival; but after all, the supreme victory is only won by those who prove themselves of so much hardier stuff than the rest that no power on earth is able to destroy them. The people who have really made history are the martyrs.

Mistakes are part of the game. It's how well you recover from them, that's the mark of a great player.

No matter how long we exist, we have our memories. Points in time which time itself cannot erase. Suffering may distort my backward glances, but even to suffering, some memories will yield nothing of their beauty or their splendor. Rather they remain as hard as gems.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

Say not the struggle nought availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been, things remain.

Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.

I try to take life as it comes, and just hope it keeps coming.

I too have known joy and sadness, and, on the whole, I prefer joy.

Aren't I lucky, to have survived so much bad luck.

If I can survive death, I can probably survive anything.

They laughed at Edison and Einstein, but somehow I still feel uncomfortable when they laugh at me.

Take heart! Many great things have been done by people in poor mental health.

I recently had my problems on the run, but now they've re-grouped, and are making another attack.

I probably hold the distinction of being one movie star who, by all laws of logic, should never have made it. At each stage of my career, I lacked the experience.

A wife is the earth itself, changing hands, bearing scars.

Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.

The important thing isn't the house. It's the ability to make it. You carry that in your brains and in your hands, wherever you go... It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhere else.

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.

I wouldn't worry too much about your heart. You can always put that award where your heart ought to be.

'In 2000 Fiji experienced the greatest crisis in its contemporary history ... Fiji came close to complete collapse and anarchy; some form of civil war was a real possibility. This would not only have pitted Fijians against Indians but Fijians against Fijians, and Province against Province. But the country did not fall. It stepped back from the brink. It drew on its inner strength and a vein of tolerance and restraint and began the task of remaking Fiji.'

19) Think before you make the coward's choice. Old age is not for sissies.

And where is now that palace gone, All the magical skill'd stone, All the dreaming towers wrought By Love as if no more than thought The unresisting marble was? How could such a wonder pass? Ah, it was but built in vain Against the stupid horns of Rome, That pusht down into the common loam The loveliness that shone in Spain. But we have raised it up again! A loftier palace, fairer far, Is ours, and one that fears no war. Safe in marvellous walls we are; Wondering sense like builded fires, High amazement of desires, Delight and certainty of love, Closing around, roofing above Our unapproacht and perfect hour Within the splendours of love's power.

I haven't been wounded, but I can still feel that hit. I will not tolerate such behaviour.

'I'm a loser, that's what they said, Now I got their women in my bed' - From 'Loser'

Pauling scooped out a hollow on the narrow ledge and covered himself with a big map he carried in his pocket. He dared not sleep because of the cold. He counted in French and German and Italian to keep himself awake; he exercised as he lay in his narrow quarters. He told the unheeding ocean about the nature of the chemical bond. When the stars came out, he sighted the end of his walking stick and tried to tell time by the constellations. He recited the periodic table of the elements. He grew more and more anxious, not for himself, since he knew he would eventually be found, but for Ava Helen, whom he could not tell that he was uncomfortable, but unharmed. He was chagrined by his predicament:.

Live, and so confound our enemies.

Total strangers trying to kill me make me feel right at home.

Pain hurts, sir. I don't court it.

The Geeta is the universal mother. I find a solace in the Bhagavadgeeta that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount. When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavad Gita. I find a verse here and a verse there , and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies - and my life has been full of external tragedies - and if they have left no visible or indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavadgeeta.

Chance cannot touch me! Time cannot hush me! Fear, Hope, and Longing, at strife, Sink as I rise, on, on, upward forever, Gathering strength, gaining breath, - naught can sever Me from the Spirit of Life!

I am still at the crease, though the bowling has been pretty hostile of late. And in case anyone doubted it, can I assure you there will be no ducking the bouncers, no stonewalling, no playing for time. The bowling's going to get hit all round the ground. That is my style.

On ne doit plus craindre les mots lorsqu'on a consenti aux choses.

Those people have been writing all those lies about me, all I know, it's their problem. Those people, I don't even know them or if we met it's been brief. Can I take it? Most of course! I'm used to it and remember the old saying: 'consider the source'.

[The human race], in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon - laughter.

Who prop, thou ask'st in these bad days, my mind?

Still nursing the unconquerable hope, Still clutching the inviolable shade, With a free, onward impulse brushing through, By night, the silver'd branches of the glade.

Radiant with ardour divine! Beacons of Hope ye appear! Languor is not in your heart, Weakness is not in your word, Weariness not on your brow.

One would say of my life, 'born loser, had to be'- but it's not the truth. In the black community, however bad it looks, there's a lot of love and so much humor.

Mankind's looking good he's showing a lot of testicular fortitude!

When you have mastered the Way of strategy you can suddenly make your body like a rock, and ten thousand things cannot touch you. This is the body of a rock. You will not be moved.

I hit him so hard that I made him cry. He looked at me and said, 'I'm going to get you for that.' I respected him then, and I respect him now.

I don't take criticisms personally, which must be very annoying for people who mean them personally.

Amidst our greatest happiness someone within us cries out: 'I am in pain! I want to escape your happiness! I am stifling!' Amidst our deepest despair someone within us cries out: 'I do not despair! I fight on! I grasp at your head, I unsheathe myself from your body, I detach myself from the earth, I cannot be contained in brains, in names, in deeds!'

I recall an endless desert of infinite and flaming matter. I am burning! I pass through immeasurable, unorganized time, completely done, despairing, crying in the wilderness. And slowly the flame subsides, the womb of matter grows cool, the stone comes alive, breaks open, and a small green leaf uncurls into the air, trembling. It clutches the soil, steadies itself, raises its head and hands, grasps the air, the water, the light, and sucks at the Universe.

There is, properly speaking, no Misfortune in the world. Happiness and Misfortune stand in continual balance. Every Misfortune is, as it were, the obstruction of a stream, which, after overcoming this obstruction, but bursts through with the greater force.

You have to admire Oprah Winfrey. She is the most powerful woman in the country and comes from a very humble background. The woman has succeeded on talent and energy.

He can never come to believe that anyone will ever help him out, ever. If he once thinks there's an easy way out, he's wrecked.

I know something of how he feels. I know something of having to submerge your will in someone else's. To live for them, as if they were the star of the story of your life, and you merely a supporting player. I have been a slave. But at least in all that time I knew my own heart. I knew what I truly thought even as I did what they wanted, whatever it took to get what I wanted from them.

You ready to command a fleet? I don't know. It depends on whether they want to win. Here's the thing, Bean. Soldiers don't like to lose And that is why losing is a much more powerful teacher than winning.

But he held his tongue, because, in the back of his mind, in the deepest corner of his heart, he still had hope that Ender might do what could not be done.

Stop threatening me... I've lived in terror and I've come out of it. Kill me or not, torture me or not, it doesn't matter to me. Just decide what to do.

We've seen the worst that men can do, pa, and been the worst that men can be. But that don't mean that someday we wont see the best, too. And if we can never be perfect after this, well, we can still be pretty good, can't we?

As for courage and will- we cannot measure how much of each lies within us, we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry through trials which may lie ahead.

She is a soldier. She will not be defeated.

This is my world! within these narrow walls, I own a princely service.

In your life, you can talk about it. Oh in your life, you can live without. Can live without. ~ 'Come Back Home'

And you know you're hard enough. And you find you're strong enough. Oh yeah you'll find you're hard enough. Oh yeah you'll find you're strong enough. ~ 'Come Back Home'

When I can't stand. Up in this cage I'm not regretting. ~ 'Lose You'

'We've had death threats', Pete says, 'saying, 'You're evil and your days are numbered.' What was it, 'Don't panic but be scared'. Someone shat on our doorstep once and nailed a sparrow to our basement door. I don't mind, me. I'll out-weird any stalker.

Just when you get really wound up, you turn a corner and you're somewhere else completely. You find an Arcadian glade - a glimpse of paradise in the middle of it all. And that's why you persevere. That's why you don't chuck yourself off a building or shoot yourself at the same time as someone else, like he [Carl] wanted us to.

L'on peut me reduire a vivre sans bonheur, Mais non pas me resoudre a vivre sans honneur.

Sans doute vos chretiens, qu'on persecute en vain, Ont quelque chose en eux qui surpasse l'humain: Ils menent une vie avec tant d'innocence, Que le ciel leur en doit quelque reconnaissance; Se relever plus forts, plus ils sont abattus, N'est pas aussi l'effet des communes vertus.

Les gens que vous tuez se portent assez bien.

Qui se vainc une fois peut se vaincre toujours.

I realized suddenly that I was in an impossible situation, and there was really no way out. No acceptable way. I could not go on - so I stopped.

Some of your hurts you have cured, And the sharpest you still have survived, But what torments of grief you endured From evils which never arrived!

The best university that can be recommended to a man of ideas is the gauntlet of the mobs.

That's not my heart, Chels, somebody is throwing a ball against my...face. You stay right there, you little nasty! [goes downstairs to give ball back to Sierra]

[just cheated on HOOK UP MY SPACE! and camera just zoomed in on Raven] Hey, America, How yall doin'.

I returned to civilization shortly after that and went to Cornell to teach, and my first impression was a very strange one. I can't understand it any more, but I felt very strongly then. I sat in a restaurant in New York, for example, and I looked out at the buildings and I began to think, you know, about how much the radius of the Hiroshima bomb damage was and so forth... How far from here was 34th street?... All those buildings, all smashed - and so on. And I would see people building a bridge, or they'd be making a new road, and I thought, they're crazy, they just don't understand, they don't understand. Why are they making new things? It's so useless. But, fortunately, it's been useless for almost forty years now, hasn't it? So I've been wrong about it being useless making bridges and I'm glad those other people had the sense to go ahead.

John Barleycorn got up again, And sore surprised them all.

The number of people that put their lives at risk, just totally overwhelmed the evil of the act.

Patience and forebearance ease the burden of misfortunes on man, facilitate the difficulties and strengthen the will and resolution.

It is tedious to describe in detail all my labours one by one. I will tell briefly how most holy God frequently delivered me, from slavery, and from the twelve trials with which my soul was threatened, from man traps as well, and from things I am not able to put into words. I would not cause offence to readers, but I have God as witness who knew all things even before they happened, that, though I was a poor ignorant waif, still he gave me abundant warnings through divine prophecy. Whence came to me this wisdom which was not my own, I who neither knew the number of days nor had knowledge of God? Whence came the so great and so healthful gift of knowing or rather loving God, though I should lose homeland and family.

A frame of adamant, a soul of fire, No dangers fright him, and no labors tire.

Nought cared this Body for wind or weather When Youth and I lived in't together.

Deep in my morning time he made his mark And still he comes uncalled to be my guide In devastated regions When the brain has lost its bearings in the dark And broken in it's body's pride In the long campaign to which it had sworn allegiance.

People need not be limited by physical handicaps as long as they are not disabled in spirit.

Nearly anyone in this line of work would take a bullet for the last pregnant dodo. But should we not admire the person who, when faced with an overwhelmingly sad reality beyond and personal blame or control, strives valiantly to rescue whatever can be salvaged, rather than retreating to the nearest corner to weep or assign fault?