Resilience Quotes

"Courage to me is doing something daring, no matter how afraid, insecure, intimidated, alone, unworthy, incapable, ridiculed or whatever other paralyzing emotion you might feel. Courage is taking action….no matter what. So you’re afraid? Be afraid. Be scared silly to the point you’re trembling and nauseous, but do it anyway!"

- Richelle E. Goodrich

"All attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail. It must be business as usual."

- Margaret Thatcher

"Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil."

- Marcus Aurelius

"I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself."

- D. H. Lawrence

"Floods will rob us of one thing, fire of another. These are conditions of our existence which we cannot change. What we can do is adopt a noble spirit, such a spirit that befits a good person, so that we may bear up bravely under all that fortune sends us and bring our wills into tune with nature’s."

- Seneca

"If I gained one thing from philosophy is that at the very least, I am well prepared to confront any change in fortune."

- Diogenes

"Don’t forget, though, that you come from a long, unbroken line of ancestors who survived unimaginable adversity, difficulty, and struggle. It’s their genes and their blood that run through your body right now. Without them, you wouldn’t be here. You’re an heir to an impressive tradition—and as their viable offspring, you’re capable of what they are capable of. You’re meant for this. Bred for it"

- Ryan Holiday

"Here’s a lesson to test your mind’s mettle: take part of a week in which you have only the most meager and cheap food, dress scantly in shabby clothes, and ask yourself if this is really the worst that you feared. It is when times are good that you should gird yourself for tougher times ahead, for when Fortune is kind the soul can build defenses against her ravages. So it is that soldiers practice maneuvers in peacetime, erecting bunkers with no enemies in sight and exhausting themselves under no attack so that when it comes they won’t grow tired."

- Seneca

"Choose not to be harmed, and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed, and you haven't been."

- Marcus Aurelius

"The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and be greater than our suffering."

- Ben Okri

"I tell myself, 'You've been through so much, you've endured so much, time will allow me to heal and soon this will be just another memory that made me the strong woman, athlete and mother I am today.'"

- Serena Williams

"When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through, it is best to make up our minds to it, meet it with firmness, and accommodate everything to it in the best way practicable. This lessens the evil; while fretting and fuming only serves to increase your own torments."

- Thomas Jefferson

"For every wound, there is a scar, and every scar tells a story.  A story that says, ‘I survived!’"

- Fr. Craig Scott

"Risky play is really important for kids—all kids—because it teaches hazard assessment, it teaches delayed gratification, it teaches resilience, it teaches confidence. When kids get outside and practice bravery, they learn valuable life lessons."

- Caroline Paul

"Encouraging a child to go outside in all weather builds resilience, but more importantly it saves them from spending their life merely tolerating the ‘bad’ days in favour of a handful of ‘good’ ones – a life of endless expectations and conditions where happiness hinges on sunshine."

- Nicolette Sowder

"Creativity and the world of the imagination—the beauty of what we see as a child and the kind of play that we experience as a child—can be a way for us to survive tough times."

- Diane Paulus

"Problems are not stop signs; they are guidelines."

- Robert H. Schuller

"There will be times when standing alone feels too hard, too scary, and we’ll doubt our ability to make our way through the uncertainty. Someone, somewhere, will say, ‘Don’t do it. You don’t have what it takes to survive the wilderness.’ This is when you reach deep into your wild heart and remind yourself, ‘I am the wilderness.’"

- Brené Brown

"We cannot raise children who are more shame-resilient than we are."

- Brené Brown

"Long before I achieved financial success and became the subject of a Hollywood film, I was a veteran, a single father, and a working person who was homeless."

- Chris Gardner

"You can fall down and then you must stand up. Only silly idiots stay on the floor. We will strike back, 100 percent."

- Emma Hayes

"It's not what happens to you, but how you react that matters."

- Epictetus

"From the ashes of adversity, the phoenix soars to new heights."

"The beauty of the phoenix lies in its ability to rise anew."

"Embrace the difficulties of Saturday with a grin, for every hindrance is a venturing stone to triumph."

"Let your Saturday be a reminder of how resilient you are as you overcome obstacles with unwavering determination."

"You’ve made it through every hard moment before this one. Today is yours to reclaim."

- Unknown

"Celebrating my wife’s 40th birthday with awe for the love, joy, and resilience she embodies."

"Take a deep breath, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again."

"To my son on his 40th: Your life’s journey is a testament to your resilience and grace."