Quill / Moments / Quotes about resilience
Quotes about resilience
Some of the best writing about hardship came from people in the middle of it. Epictetus was born enslaved. Seneca wrote to his mother from exile on Corsica to console her about his own absence. Wilde wrote De Profundis in a cell at Reading.
None of them use the word resilience in today's sense, and few of them are cheerful. They describe what's left to you after a loss, which tends to read as more useful than encouragement.
From the books
Checked word for word against public-domain editions.
If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it.
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If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgment about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgment now. But if anything in thy own disposition gives thee pain, who hinders thee from correcting thy opinion? And even if thou art pained because thou art not doing some particular thing which seems to thee to be right, why dost …
We were born to strive and endure—you as well as I: do so.
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“Mr. Rochester, I no more assign this fate to you than I grasp at it for myself. We were born to strive and endure—you as well as I: do so. You will forget me before I forget you.”
Difficulties increase the nearer we come to our aim.
If not today, why then tomorrow.
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‘Our fortuns, Mas’r Davy,’ he rejoined, ‘is soon told. We haven’t fared nohows, but fared to thrive. We’ve allus thrived. We’ve worked as we ought to ‘t, and maybe we lived a leetle hard at first or so, but we have allus thrived. What with sheep-farming, and what with stock-farming, and what with one thing and what with t’other, we are as well to do, as well could be. Theer’s been kiender a blessing fell upon us,’ said Mr. Peggotty, reverentially inclining his head, ‘and we’ve done nowt but prosper. That is, in the long run. If not yesterday, why then today. If not today, why then tomorrow.’
Never say about anything, I have lost it, but say I have restored it.
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Never say about anything, I have lost it, but say I have restored it. Is your child dead? It has been restored. Is your wife dead? She has been restored. Has your estate been taken from you? Has not then this also been restored? But he who has taken it from me is a bad man. But what is it to you, by whose hands the giver demanded it back? So long as he may allow you, take care of it as a thing which belongs to another, as travellers do with their inn.
Life is not a holiday, but an education.
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So much for the analysis of Love. Now the business of our lives is to have these things fitted into our characters. That is the supreme work to which we need to address ourselves in this world, to learn Love. Is life not full of opportunities for learning Love? Every man and woman every day has a thousand of them. The world is not a playground; it is a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday, but an education. And
Let hard blows of trouble strike fire into my life.
Always believe that something will occur to offend you.
Magnanimity befits all mortal men, even the humblest of all; for what can be greater or braver than to resist ill fortune?
You must call up all your fortitude, and try to bear it.
We are not at the mercy of any waves of chance.
Blame is safer than praise.
We are tougher, brother, Than you can put us to ’t.
The hardness of flint is known to none so well as to those who strike it.
Whatsoever is necessary, we must bear patiently.
Dark clouds bring waters, when the bright bring none.
Let not these thoughts afflict you, I shall live unhonored and be nobody nowhere.
Straightway then practise saying to every harsh appearance: You are an appearance, and in no manner what you appear to be.
The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks.
To be in the weakest camp is to be in the strongest school.
Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.
To be a great man one should know how to profit by every phase of fortune.
Without the necessity of encountering difficulty, life might be easier, but men would be worth less.
Take away the complaint, "I have been harmed," and the harm is taken away.
Long is the way And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.
The invulnerable is not that which is never struck, but that which is never wounded.
Calamity is the occasion of virtue, and a spur to a great mind.
The characteristic of heroism is its persistency.
Necessity does everything well.
A gladiator deems it a disgrace to be matched with an inferior, and knows that to win without danger is to win without glory.
Great evils are in some cases only to be met by resistance; they cannot be wept down, but must be battled down.
Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults.
In general, every evil to which we do not succumb is a benefactor.
Familiarity with danger leads us to despise it.
Sweet are the uses of adversity.
The school of Difficulty is the best school of moral discipline, for nations as for individuals.
Popular sayings
Widely repeated lines with no name attached, because nobody can honestly put one on them.
Persistence is the key to success.
Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.
The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.
It's only a bad day, not a bad life.
You can't control the wind, but you can adjust your sails.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
Hard seasons end; the person they shaped stays.
If you stumble, make it part of the dance.
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