The best resilience quotes resonate with something deep inside the human spirit. They endure because they touch the parts of us that are hurting, that are trying, the parts that say “Maybe I’m not enough for this.” The parts of us that hope our future is not determined by the stars, but by our own sweat. And the best quotes about resilience are handed down through the years, because they capture a tiny piece of the reality of being human – and like any good saying or fairytale, they condense and capture some essential characteristic of our experience.
I don’t know what you’re going through right now. Are you reading this to pump yourself up? Maybe for public speaking, maybe a business setback, maybe a difficult relationship? Are you scraping the bottom of your soul for the inspiration that you’re sure is hiding somewhere? Has your past left you with hidden needles in the haystack of your mind, that you’re only now starting to sift through? Or maybe, you’re reading this for a friend – someone you love, and your own words don’t seem like enough.
Well, take heart, reader. Some of the best minds have distilled some of humanity’s best wisdom, just for us. Be inspired, and then inspire others.
1. “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
2. “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.”
― Angela Duckworth
3. “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”
― Robert Jordan, The Fires of Heaven
4. “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.”
― Elizabeth Edwards
5. “Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.”
― Henry Ward Beecher
6. “The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.”
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper
7. “If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.”
― Shane Koyczan
8. “No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That’s the only way to keep the roads clear.”
― Greg Kincaid
9. “It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment.”
― Bram Stoker, Dracula
10. “My barn having burned down, I can now see the moon.”
11. “Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.”
― Gever Tulley
12. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
― Margaret Thatcher
13. “It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop.”
― Dieter F. Uchtdorf
14. “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
― Nelson Mandela
15. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
― Maya Angelou
16. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life.”
― J.K. Rowling
17. “She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.”
― Elizabeth Edwards
18. “A good half of the art of living is resilience.”
― Alain de Botton
19. “You must bear losses like a soldier, the voice told me, bravely and without complaint, and just when the day seems lost, grab your shield for another stand, another thrust forward. That is the juncture that separates heroes from the merely strong.”
― Margaret George, The Memoirs of Cleopatra
20. “Grief and resilience live together.”
21. “No matter how bleak or menacing a situation may appear, it does not entirely own us. It can’t take away our freedom to respond, our power to take action.”
― Ryder Carroll
22. “On the other side of a storm is the strength that comes from having navigated through it. Raise your sail and begin.”
― Gregory S. Williams
23. “I tried and failed. I tried again and again and succeeded.”
― Gail Borden
24. “The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat.”
― Woodrow Wilson
25. “It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks.”
― Bob Richards
26. “Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.”
― Robert F. Kennedy
27. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
― Confucius
28. “Forget mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you are going to do right now, and do it. Today is your lucky day.”
― Will Durant
29. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.”
― Japanese Proverb
30. “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”
31. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
― Winston Churchill
32. “When we learn how to become resilient, we learn how to embrace the beautifully broad spectrum of the human experience.”
― Jaeda Dewalt
33. “Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going.”
― Yasmin Mogahed
34. “We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.”
― Stephen Covey
35. “Resilience is the ability to attack while running away.”
― Wes Fessler
36. “Resilience is based on compassion for ourselves as well as compassion for others.”
― Sharon Salzberg
37. “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I will try again tomorrow’.”
― Mary Anne Radmacher
38. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.”
― Oprah Winfrey
39. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
― Thomas Edison
40. “Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on.”
41. “Like tiny seeds with potent power to push through tough ground and become mighty trees, we hold innate reserves of unimaginable strength. We are resilient.”
― Catherine DeVrye, The Gift of Nature
42. “No one escapes pain, fear, and suffering. Yet from pain can come wisdom, from fear can come courage, from suffering can come strength – if we have the virtue of resilience.”
― Eric Greitens, Resilience
43. “Successful people demonstrate their resilience through their dedication to making progress every day, even if that progress is marginal.”
― Jonathan Mills, How to Be Successful in Business and in Life
44. “We all have battles to fight. And it’s often in those battles that we are most alive: it’s on the frontlines of our lives that we earn wisdom, create joy, forge friendships, discover happiness, find love, and do purposeful work.”
― Eric Greitens, Resilience
45. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”
― Og Mandino
46. “I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance”
― Lee Ann Womack, I Hope You Dance
47. “Resilience isn’t a single skill. It’s a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive.”
― Jean Chatzky
48. “Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up.”
― Mary Holloway
49. “As much as talent counts, effort counts twice.”
― Angela Duckworth
50. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
All you need today is a true picture of reality and complete, unshakeable confidence in your ability to take charge of it through your own effort. That’s where hope comes from, and that’s where resilience is born.
Go do something exciting, turn your tragedy into your backstory, and then write your own quote.
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