Adversity and Overcoming - Quotes

Last week I quoted Nietzsche (below) to an elderly client, Margaret, who is experiencing legal difficulties: “That which does not destroy me makes me stronger.”

She responded with “The pain we feel today is the strength we feel tomorrow.”

How true that often lessons are learnt from pain and that sometimes we grow from being hurt. . .  from standing firm, withstanding, overcoming.

The full quotation pf the words quoted by Margaret, bless her, is 

The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow. For every challenge encountered there is opportunity for growth.

- Author unknown

Some other quotations on a similar theme:

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved. 

– Helen Keller

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves. 

– Leonardo da Vinci

Never give in.. never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force.. never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. 

– Winston Churchill

Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

– A. A. Milne (as Winnie the Pooh)

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, “I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along”. 

– Eleanor Roosevelt

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places. 

– Ernest Hemingway

You will never truly know yourself or the strength of your relationships until both have been tested by adversity.

- J K Rowling

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

- Albert Schweitzer

The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you're hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!

- Sylvester Stallone (as Rocky Balboa)

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