Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
- Publilius SyrusResilience
Resilience has travelled a long way in twenty years, from a term in psychology to a word on posters. It originally described something measurable: a system's capacity to return to equilibrium after a shock. Applied to people it never meant being unaffected — it meant recovering, and that distinction is the first casualty of popular use.
Older writing on the subject rarely uses the word but describes it more precisely. Epictetus, who spent part of his life enslaved, does not talk about strength; he talks about separating what is in our power from what is not. The quotes gathered here mostly follow that line. They do not deny that a blow hurts — they ask what is done with it afterwards, which makes them more useful than anything demanding you feel nothing.
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
- ConfuciusDripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.
- OvidI am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May AlcottObstacles cannot crush me; every obstacle yields to stern resolve.
- Leonardo da VinciIn the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm; in the real world all rests on perseverance.
- Johann Wolfgang von GoetheOut of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
- Kahlil GibranDifficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
- SenecaIt's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
- EpictetusWhen everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
- Henry FordDo what you can, with what you have, where you are.
- Theodore RooseveltThe impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
- Marcus AureliusYou have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
- Marcus AureliusLoss is nothing else but change, and change is nature's delight.
- Marcus AureliusCircumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.
- EpictetusIn the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.
- Sun TzuA friend is known in times of trouble.
- Croatian ProverbEnergy and persistence conquer all things.
- Benjamin FranklinThe greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
- William JamesClouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
- Rabindranath TagoreI do the very best I know how — the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end.
- Abraham LincolnHe who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
- Friedrich NietzscheMy life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.
- Michel de MontaigneThis too shall pass.
- Persian ProverbOur greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
- Thomas EdisonFall seven times, stand up eight.
- Japanese ProverbI have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
- Thomas EdisonSmooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
- African ProverbAdversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
- HoraceWe suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
- SenecaVictory belongs to the most persevering.
- Napoleon BonaparteThat which does not kill us makes us stronger.
- Friedrich NietzscheIf you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
- Maya AngelouQuiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.
- Robert Louis StevensonNever give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
- Harriet Beecher StoweThe bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.
- Japanese ProverbAlthough the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.
- Helen KellerEnjoy when you can, and endure when you must.
- Johann Wolfgang von GoetheOur greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
- ConfuciusSuccess is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.
- Booker T. WashingtonIt is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.
- SenecaIf there is no struggle, there is no progress.
- Frederick DouglassMake the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
- Epictetus