Tacitus

We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.


Robert Louis Stevenson

Even I, who had the tide going out and in before me in the bay, and even watched for the ebbs, the better to get my shellfish — even I (I say) if I had sat down to think, instead of raging at my fate, must have soon guessed the secret, and got free. It was no wonder the fishers had not understood me. The wonder was rather that they had ever guessed my pitiful illusion, and taken the trouble to come back. I had starved with cold and hunger on that island for close upon one hundred hours. But for the fishers, I might have left my bones there, in pure folly. And even as it was, I had paid for it pretty dear, not only in past sufferings, but in my present case; being clothed like a beggar-man, scarce able to walk, and in great pain of my sore throat.
I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.


Theodore Rubin

“The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.”


Thomas Paine

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”


Joshua J. Marine

“Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”


Henry Kaiser

“Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.”


Bo Jackson

Growing up I had a horrible speech impediment. I stuttered to where I couldn’t even talk in class. I couldn’t even give one-word answers because I would stutter, which in turn made me mad. I fought a lot and I stayed in trouble a lot. I never had someone come in and say, ‘We want to have you see a speech therapist to help you’. I was too poor. People that live on the borderline of poverty do not get charity because it does not go that far down the line. I wish I had someone to help me, but it never happened. I did it myself. I still get stuck on a word sometimes, but I don’t let it bother me. When I go home, people say, ‘Man, it would take you 10 minutes to say a sentence when you were young, and now you’re traveling around the country, speaking to corporations and thousands of people. How…did you do it?’”


Horace

“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.”


William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow’d.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Lies but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.


Albert Einstein

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”


Sir Winston Churchill

“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour.”


George Gordon Byron

“Adversity is the first path to truth.”


Anne Dudley Bradstreet

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.


Lou Gehrig Delivers “Farewell to Baseball Address” at Yankee Stadium

I have been walking onto ballfields for 16 years, and I’ve never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. I have had the great honor to have played with these great veteran ballplayers on my left — Murderers Row, our championship team of 1927. I have had the further honor living and playing with these men on my right– the Bronx Bombers, the Yankees of today. I have been given fame and undeserved praise by the boys up there behind the wire, my friends, the sports writers. I have worked under the two greatest managers of all time, Miller Huggins and Joe McCarthy. I have a mother and father who fought to give me health and a solid background in my youth. I have a wife, a companion for life, who has shown me more courage than I ever knew. People all say that I’ve had a bad break. But today –today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.