Quill / Moments / Comeback quotes for the long way back
Comeback quotes for the long way back
A movement you did without thinking two years ago now takes all your attention. Your teammates are at training without you, or your old colleagues got the thing you were up for, and everyone keeps saying you'll be back in no time.
Comebacks mostly happen in dull rooms. People who have made one talk about small steps they could measure, a professional they trusted, and the idea that they were rebuilding when it felt like falling behind. Pushing through pain gets a poor report from most of them.
Lost matches and public failures are here as well as injuries, and the loss gets taken seriously. For anything to do with your body, your physio or doctor knows better than a Lock Screen, and no line here will tell you how the recovery ends.
The moments
- The first session after the injury
- A setback halfway through, when it was going well
- Peers moving ahead while you relearn the basics
- The first day back after a very public loss
- Being written off by someone who matters
- Weeks of recovery that nobody can see
What people say helps
- Thinking of it as rebuilding on the days it felt like falling behind
- Small steps they could measure
- Support from others and from a professional
- Counting the mental side as part of the work
“Come back stronger” and “it's a blessing in disguise” skip the part you're in now, and “no pain, no gain” is bad advice in a rehab room.
Quill Originals are written by Quill. Popular sayings are widely repeated lines with no name attached. Lines with a name are checked word for word against public-domain books.
Quill Originals
Think of the kid who wanted this. They're still counting on you.
Patience feels like nothing happening. It isn't nothing.
Plenty of people would've quietly walked away by now.
They're ahead and you're rebuilding. Those are different jobs.
The kids watching you go through this are taking notes.
Their season has nothing to do with your timeline.
You didn't quit when it was public, and you didn't quit when it was boring.
Ignore anyone who says it happened for a reason.
Written off in a sentence. You've got a lot more words than that.
Keep the headline in your drawer. Fuel keeps well.
You're tired of being brave. Be ordinary for an evening.
Your body isn't the enemy. Treat it like the teammate who got hurt.
Sat on the bench all game? Be the first one warming up next time.
New kid again at your age. Bring snacks.
Back in the building.
Lost the big one. It's still true you got that far.
You don't have to find the silver lining this morning.
You forgot about it for an hour today. Quietly enormous.
Anniversary of the worst day. You made it round the sun.
Failed the exam. The subject's still there, and so are you.
Your comeback will look boring from outside. Most of them do.
Your scars make you very hard to intimidate.
Popular sayings
The best revenge is living well.
Keep showing up.
Hard seasons end; the person they shaped stays.
If you stumble, make it part of the dance.
Sometimes you have to fall before you fly.
Failure is the mother of success.
From the books
We were born to strive and endure—you as well as I: do so.
Read the passage around this line
“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.”
The plow goes on after a barren year: and while the ashes are yet warm, we raise a new house upon the ruins of a former.
Read the passage around this line
… such or such a man so much money: I would I had thrown it into the sea;” and yet the merchant trades again after a piracy, and the banker ventures afresh after a bad security. He that will do no good offices after a disappointment, must stand still, and do just nothing at all. The plow goes on after a barren year: and while the ashes are yet warm, we raise a new house upon the ruins of a former. What obligations can be greater than those which children receive from their parents? and yet should we give them over in their infancy, it were all to no purpose. Benefits, like grain, must be followed from the seed to the harvest. I will not so much as leave any place for …
If not today, why then tomorrow.
Read the passage around this line
‘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.’
Like a rubber ball, the harder the obstacle he meets the higher he rebounds.
Let hard blows of trouble strike fire into my life.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.
The more that my life disappointed me, the more solemn and wonderful it became to me.
Draw yourself out of the evil way, like an elephant sunk in mud.
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