...so often we look at a calendar of days as merely a symbol of the passage of time. We forget why we are on this earth. We forget that there is a reason for all of the pain and all of the struggle. We forget that we were put on earth to learn something. If everything were perfect in this life, we would never learn anything new. We would not be able to elevate our spirits through the events that happen to us.
Lynn V. Andrews Walk in Balance
Categories: growth meaning of life purpose fulfillment pain challenges problems time struggle despair depression challenges adversity learning self-improvement problems illness disability

No task's too steep for human wit.
Horace Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: intelligence perseverance challenges

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our helper.
Edmund Burke The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: strength mentoring challenges

...for better or worse, our future will be determined in large part by our dreams and by the struggle to make them real.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Categories: future dreams goals challenges

There aren't any great men. There are just great challenges that ordinary men like you and me are forced by circumstances to meet.
William F. Halsey The 13 Secrets of Power Performance
Categories: character challenges difficulties circumstances

When faced with a mountain, I will not quit! I will keep striving until I climb over, find a pass through, tunnel underneath or simply stay and turn the mountain into a gold mine, with God's help.
Robert Schuller The 13 Secrets of Power Performance
Categories: challenges obstacles problems difficulties

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.
Socrates The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: adversity challenges difficulties problems

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity.
Lou Holtz "Trying times hope to build real character" by Harvey Mackay,Arizona Republic, 10/31/2001
Categories: character adversity challenges growth

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Categories: overcoming challenges fear obstacles

Problems are to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day
Categories: problems difficulty adversity challenges

I've felt that the only way to survive was with dignity, pride and courage.
Eric Clapton The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations
Categories: difficulties adversity problems challenges

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor the man without trials.
Confucius Light from Many Lamps
Categories: adversity challenges problems difficulties

It is often better to have a great deal of harm happen to one than a little; a great deal may rouse you to remove what a little will only accustom you to endure.
Grenville Kleiser The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: problems difficulties challenges action

Never measure the height of a mountain, until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.
Dag Hammarskjold Markings
Categories: challenges problems difficulties adversity

When we accept tough jobs as a challenge to our ability and wade into them with joy and enthusiasm, miracles can happen.
Arland Gilbert The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: attitude challenges achievement success

If you can't endure the bad, you'll not live to witness the good.
Yiddish proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: overcome problems challenges difficulties

The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.
Helen Hayes Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: age aging youth life challenges

Difficulties exist to be surmounted.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: difficulties challenges problems mistakes

The significant problems we face cannot be resolved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
Albert Einstein Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: problems challenges creativity obstacles difficulties

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.
Horace The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: adversity difficulties challenges talents gifts

All that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable.
Kathleen Norris The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: success adversity challenges problems difficulties

The nearer the dawn the darker the night.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow American Quotations
Categories: problems challenges difficulties adversity hope

Always remember that problems contain values that have improvement potential.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year
Categories: problems difficulties challenges adversity opportunity

Rough spots sharpen our performance. And more often
Harvey Mackay 'Achievers focus on road rather
Categories: overcoming adversity problems challenges growth

No traveler e'er reached that blest abode who found not thorns and briers in his road.
William Cowper The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: troubles difficulties problems challenges adversity

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.
Hannah More Body, Mind and Spirit: Daily Inspiration for Healing and Wholeness
Categories: obstacles challenges difficulties focus goal

I believe that to nurture my soul and to fulfill my soul's purpose, I must learn from every event in my life. I must come to realize that every experience has within it a seed of a tremendous gift -- a soul gift -- some new gift.
John Gray Handbook for the Soul
Categories: adversity challenges growth problems difficulties

All adversity is really an opportunity for our souls to grow; all adversity is really a form of growing pains.
John Gray Handbook for the Soul
Categories: growth difficulties problems adversities challenges

I learn by going where I have to go.
Theodore Roethke The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life
Categories: growth education learning adversity challenges

All rising to great place is by a winding stair.
Sir Francis Bacon Power Quotes
Categories: greatness challenges problems obstacles detours

These are the times that try men's souls.
Thomas Paine, from The American Crisis Our Sacred Honor
Categories: despair hopelessness challenges obstacles difficulties

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
Dolly Parton Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: pain change difficulties challenges problems

The more a ball is struck, the more it rebounds.
Tamil proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: survival overcome problems difficulties challenges

Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even.
Horace Alexandra Stoddard's Book of Days
Categories: troubles problems challenges difficulties adversity

He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatness of soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported with the later.
Henry Fielding The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: adversity character difficulties challenges problems

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.
Horace The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: adversity problems challenges difficulties prosperity

Trouble will come soon enough, and when he does come receive him as pleasantly as possible... and the more amiably you greet him, the sooner he will go away.
Artemus Ward The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: acceptance attitude problems adversity challenges

Don't fall victim to your own melodrama. Keep things in perspective. The odds are that your problem is solvable. Address the solution and don't dwell on the problem to the point at which it paralyzes you.
Harvey Mackay "Out of pressure, positive results can evolve" by Harvey Mackay, Arizona Republic, 10/24/2001
Categories: problem solving perspective challenges adversity

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step in overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.
William James Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Categories: acceptance adversity problems difficulties challenges

It may be most helpful if you assume there will be extra-difficult times and prepare in advance... Then, when you hit a rough period, you will be in a better position to make a choice. And you are almost certain to hit such rough periods. Modern life (perhaps all life) is complex and unpredictable. The best laid plans of mice and men often
Lawrence LeShan, Ph.D. Meditating to Attain a Healthy Body Weight
Categories: preparation adversity challenges difficulties problems

Sometimes we feel that we've got to climb a mountain or raise a monument to leave our mark on the world. What we fail to recognize is that often we make a difference simply by existing, by handling what life gives us. Maybe the way we deal with our challenges and our rewards inspires someone else to achieve worthwhile things in their own life.
Blaine Lee The Power Principle
Categories: perseverence persevere difficulties challenges problems obstacles example

Heroism... is endurance for one moment more.
George Kennan Making Choices : Discover the Joy in Living the Life You Want to Lead
Categories: strength courage bravery adversity problems challenges

Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them... they are liable to spring upon you; but... if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.
Orison Swett Marden Soar...If You Dare
Categories: obstacles problems challenges fear courage strength

The behavior of actually walking away from important problems is a relatively extreme negative approach to problem solving. In other cases, people may mentally "walk away" without physically removing themselves...Lack of attention to a task is not simply a result of "disinterest" or "laziness." Attention can also be affected by fear and anxiety.
John D. Bransford and Barry S. Stein The Ideal Problem Solver
Categories: attention focus problems challenges obstacles difficulties

When I dig another out of trouble, the hole from which I lift him is the place where I bury my own.
Norman Vincent Peale Have a Great Day
Categories: trouble help challenges obstacles win/win volunteerism ministry service

I hope that you will abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience--to appreciate the fact that life is complex.
M. Scott Peck Further Along the Road Less Traveled
Categories: problems challenges difficulties life living growth

Great men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.
Seneca The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: adversity difficulty challenges problems failure setbacks

It is the character of a brave and resolute man not to be ruffled by adversity and not to desert his post.
Cicero The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: adversity difficulties challenges problems courage character

The anvil lasts longer than the hammer.
Italian proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: stress problems difficulties challenges perspective strength

Keep on truckin'.
Robert Crumb Cassell Companion to Quotations
Categories: persistence determination success challenges achievement adversity

Cushion the painful effects of hard blows by keeping the enthusiasm going strong, even if doing so requires struggle.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day
Categories: obstacles challenges problems enthusiasm attitude positive

But in the mud and scum of things
``There alway, alway something sings.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: hope faith perspective problems challenges difficulties

Better to accept whatever happens.
Horace The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: acceptance growth change problems difficulties challenges

If matters go badly now, they will not always be so.
Horace The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: hope perspective difficulties challenges problems future

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: challenges difficulty problems learning growth change

Every calamity is a spur and valuable hint.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: trouble difficulties challenges problems growth change

When a man is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: challenges difficulties problems learning wisdom growth

Should you shield the valleys from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their canyons.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Body, Mind and Spirit
Categories: difficulties problems challenges obstacles character growth

The chief pang of most trials is not so much the actual suffering itself as our own spirt of resistance to it.
Jean Nicolas Grou Light from Many Lamps
Categories: suffering adversity challenges difficulties personal growth

The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.
Aristotle The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: beauty soul challenges circumstances life attitude

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
Aristotle The Forbes Book of Business Quotations : 14,266 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Categories: circumstances problems difficulties challenges dignity attitude

Patience and fortitude conquer all things.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Light from Many Lamps
Categories: patience strength courage difficulties challenges problems

What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.
Albert Camus The Artist's Way : A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity
Categories: strength courage adversity problems difficulties challenges

You can increase your brain power three- to fivefold simply by laughing and having fun before working on a problem.
Doug Hall Jump Start Your Brain
Categories: fun energy difficulties problems challenges thought learning

What gets in your way can take you to someplace new.
Sarah East Johnson "Living Dangerously" by Harriet Rubin, Fast Company, January/February 2000
Categories: obstacles detours problems difficulty growth challenges

I find that it is not the circumstances in which we are placed, but the spirit in which we face them, that constitutes our comfort.
Elizabeth T. King The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: adversity difficulties challenges problems contentment attitude

Courage conquers all things.
Ovid Making Choices : Discover the Joy in Living the Life You Want to Lead
Categories: courage bravery strength adversity challenges problems

Learning, understanding, or practicing spiritual disciplines will not immunize you against any of the lessons you must "grow through" in your life.
Iyanla Vanzant One Day My Soul Just Opened Up : 40 Days and 40 Nights Towards Spiritual Strength and Personal Growth
Categories: pain adversity challenges problems difficulties growth

Every situation presents us with an opportunity to automatically react or consciously respond: a choice point...We are a product of our choices, not``of our circumstances.
Eric Allenbaugh Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: choice attitude circumstances difficulties challenges problems

None knows the weight of another's burden.
English proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: empathy compassion grief adversity challenges difficulties problems

Most people live, whether physically, intellectually, or morally, in a very restricted circle of their being. They make use of a very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into the habit of using and moving only his little finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.
William James You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought
Categories: potential self-improvement growth adversity challenges obstacles problems

The real world is not easy to live in. It is rough; it is slippery. Without the most clear-eyed adjustments we fall and get crushed.
Clarence Day The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: acceptance decisions adversity challenges change growth vision

...we have a tendency to obscure the forest of simple joys with the trees of problems.
Christiane Collange Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: joy happiness attitude choice problems difficulties challenges obstacles

No life is so hard that you can't make it easier by the way you take it.
Ellen Glasgow Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: attitude choice difficulty problems obstacles challenges difficulties

No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities -- they're always there.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year
Categories: optimism hope faith adversity challenges problems difficulties

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.
Anne Bradstreet The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women
Categories: pain joy suffering challenges problems difficulties balance gratitude

All the fun is locking horns with impossibilities.
Claes Oldenburg Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: difficulties problems challenges obstacles innovation creative expression

Though victory is difficult, defeat is impossible.
Lloyd George The Guinness Chronicle of the 20th-century in Quotations edited by David Milsted
Categories: determination persevere struggle challenges difficulties problems adversity

Enthusiasm is the fly-wheel which carries your saw through the knots in the log.
Dr. Harvey Cushing Words for All Occasions
Categories: enthusiasm drive success difficulties adversity problems challenges

In the long run, in spite of everything, I have been very lucky. I asked for bread and was given a stone. It turned out to be precious.
Quentin Crisp The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations
Categories: perspective adversity challenges gifts difficulties problems gratitude

A serene fortitude in the face of disappointment and chagrin should be our goal. If you have evaded all unhappiness in life your happiness is place in unstable equilibrium by the constant dread that some unavoidable disappointment is just around the corner. If you have faced pain and disappointment, you not only value your happiness more highly, but you are prepared for unpredictable exigencies. Just as we can immunize ourselves against certain bodily diseases by stimulating our reserves to overactivity
W. Beran Wolfe Light from Many Lamps
Categories: happiness adversity challenges growth character perspective pain

This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble.
Ludwig Von Beethoven Making Choices : Discover the Joy in Living the Life You Want to Lead
Categories: character strength courage resolve adversity challenges problems

Don't be disquieted in time of adversity. Be firm with dignity and self-reliant with vigor.
Chiang Kai-Shek The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: adversity problems difficulties challenges dignity pride courage

All adverse and depressing influences can be overcome, not by fighting, by by rising above them.
Charles Caleb Colton The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: adversity difficulties challenges problems character problem-solving

The worst bankrupt is the man who has lost his enthusiasm. Let a man lose everything in the world but his enthusiasm and he will come through again to success.
H. W. Arnold Words for All Occasions
Categories: enthusiasm success failure difficulties problems challenges adversity

What was hard to bear is sweet to remember.
Portuguese proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: adversity difficulties triumph problems challenges past memories

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Quotes
Categories: perseverence challenges difficulty difficulties obstacles stress problems

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
Seneca Franklin Day Planner, July 3, 1993
Categories: challenges difficulties problems thought wisdom problem solving

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Light from Many Lamps
Categories: sharing caring difficulties challenges problems friendship relationships

All the water in the world cannot drown you -- unless it gets inside.
Mary Manin Boggs Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: choice attitude thought problems challenges difficulties focus

In times of stress, be bold and valiant.
Horace The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: stress difficulties challenges problems courage attitude persevere

Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves, as he loves us better too. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This conflict with difficulty makes us acquainted with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial.
Edmund Burke The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: adversity difficulties problems challenges obstacles growth wisdom

When flowing water...meets with obstacles on its path, a blockage in its journey, it pauses. It increases in volume and strength, filling up in front of the obstacle and eventually spilling past it...

Do not turn and run, for there is nowhere worthwhile for you to go. Do not attempt to push ahead into the danger...emulate the example of the water: Pause and build up your strength until the obstacle no longer represents a blockage.
from the I Ching To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension of Entrepreneuring
Categories: obstacles problems difficulties challenges growth patience perseverance

Never despair.
Horace The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: hope depression attitude problems challenges difficulties sadness

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance.
Bruce Barton The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: success achievement self-confidence overcome difficulties challenges problems

Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our path. They grow everywhere.
Big Elk A Cherokee Feast of Days: Daily Meditations
Categories: problems challenges difficulties obstacles attitude focus acceptance

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge
Aristotle The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: friendship relationships love life difficulties challenges circumstances

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.
Samuel Johnson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: obstacles challenges difficulties problems self-awareness growth wisdom

To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.
Frederick Amiel The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: courage strength happiness overcoming challenges difficulties problems adversity

It doesn't make any difference whether what you face is something that affects your work, your personal relationships, your sense of security, your appraisal of self-worth, or your appearance--the way you think about your situation largely determines whether you will do anything about it and what you will do.
Dr. Arthur Freeman The 10 Dumbest Mistakes Smart People Make and How to Avoid Them
Categories: problems difficulties challenges obstacles thought emotions adversity actions

The happy and efficient people in this world are those who accept trouble as a normal detail of human life and resolve to capitalize on it when it comes along.
H. Bertram Lewis The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: adversity challenges difficulties troubles choice attitude courage strength

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there is never any recourse to the mention of it.
Samuel Johnson The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: misery sadness depression grief problems challenges obstacles difficulties

It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.
Horace The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: courage strength life joy adversity challenges difficulties problems attitude

The choices that make a significant difference in our lives are the tough ones. They're not often fun or easy, but they're the ones we have to make, and each is a deliberate step toward better understanding who we really are.
Alexandra Stoddard Making Choices : Discover the Joy in Living the Life You Want to Lead
Categories: choices personal responsibility adversity challenges problems identity character

While there's life, there's hope!
Ancient Roman Saying Be Hopeful: How to make the best of times out of the worst of times
Categories: hope adversity problems difficulties challenges depression sadness despair

It's hard to tell our bad luck from our good luck sometimes. And most of us have wept copious tears over someone or something when if we'd understood the situation better we might have celebrated our good fortune instead.
Merle Shain Simple Abundance
Categories: luck circumstances hindsight problems difficulty obstacles challenges adversity

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.
Seneca The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: prosperity adversity strength character difficulty challenges obstacles growth

Joy is the will which labors, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph.
William Butler Yeats The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: happiness joy challenges obstacles problems difficulties adversity overcome work

Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them?
M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled
Categories: life challenges difficulties obstacles problems focus perspective action

The greatest object in the universe, says a certain philosopher, is a good man struggling with adversity; yet there is still a greater, which is the good man who comes to relieve it.
Oliver Goldsmith The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: character growth adversity problems difficulties challenges ministry service

O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.  Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."
Isaiah 30:19-21 Holy Bible
Categories: adversity challenges difficulties problems wisdom knowledge experience growth

Adversity brings knowledge, and knowledge wisdom.
Welsh proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: adversity challenges difficulties problems wisdom knowledge experience growth

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
Publilius Syrus The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: leadership adversity difficulties challenges problems turmoil growth skill

For courage mounteth with occasion.
William Shakespeare (King John) Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: courage strength bravery circumstances troubles problems obstacles challenges

Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps 'til the legend, "over steep ways to the stars," fulfills self.
William C. Doane The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: adversity challenges difficulties problems attitude excellence success achievement

Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be insupportable.
Samuel Johnson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: hope circumstances misery comfort difficulties challenges obstacles problems

We all have obstacles to overcome. I have come to understand also that there are many people willing to accept and help you, if only you first accept and help yourself. It's true. If you are an angry person, the hostility drives people away from you, but if you are at peace and have confidence in yourself,, people are drawn to you.
Stedman Graham You Can Make It Happen : A Nine-Step Plan for Success
Categories: problems challenges difficulties relationships self-acceptance self-awareness self-improvement self-confidence

One way to become enthusiastic is to look for the plus sign. To make progress in any difficult situation, you have to start with what's right about it and build on that.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day
Categories: enthusiasm positive challenges difficulties problems solutions progress growth

What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity.
J. Sidlow Baxter Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude character vision problems obstacles challenges difficulties opportunities

As a progressive and evolving being, man is where he is that he may learn that he may grow; and as he learns the spiritual lesson which any circumstance contains for him, it passes away and gives place to other circumstances.
James Allen As a Man Thinketh
Categories: growth self-improvement self-awareness circumstances adversity problems difficulties challenges

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do."
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: courage strength growth change challenges difficulties problems learning

Life's blows cannot break a person whose spirit is warmed at the fire of enthusiasm.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day
Categories: enthusiasm spirit difficulties challenges problems heart attitude positive

Little pot, do not call the kettle black until you have been in the fire as long as he has!
Sequichie grandmother A Cherokee Feast of Days: Daily Meditations
Categories: perception respect judgementalism difficulties challenges problems charity mercy

Everywhere I go, there I am again.
Pogo Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: obstacles change growth learning mistakes challenges difficulties problems

Problems are sent to us as gifts.
Ancient Oriental teaching Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: problems challenges obstacles difficulties learning growth progress success

Within each of us is a hidden store of energy. Energy we can release to compete in the marathon of life.
Within each of us is a hidden store of courage. Courage to give us the strength to face any challenge.
Within each of us is a hidden store of determination. Determination to keep us in the race when all seems lost.
Roger Dawson The 13 Secrets of Power Performance
Categories: energy persevere life courage bravery determination challenges hopelessness

We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.
Alexander Hamilton The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: problems challenges adversity illness disability attitude growth character

The important point about problem solving is not that some people are better at it than others. Instead, the important point is that problem solving can be learned. It frequently isn't learned because it isn't taught.
John D. Bransford and Barry S. Stein The Ideal Problem Solver
Categories: problems obstacles challenges difficulties creativity ability education learning

'Tis easy enough to be pleasant, when life flows like a song. But the man worthwhile is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: cheerfulness attitude character strength adversity challenges difficulties problems

If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.
Thomas Watson, Sr., founder of IBM Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: failure success mistakes creativity challenges growth learning education

Life's up and downs provide windows of opportunity to determine...[your] values and goals...Think of using all obstacles as stepping stones to build the life you want.
Marsha Sinetar To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension of Entrepreneuring
Categories: life living opportunity values goals vision mission obstacles challenges

He knows not his own strength who hath not met adversity.
Samuel Johnson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: obstacles challenges problems difficulties self-awareness self-confidence wisdom strength courage

Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is an honest man.
Henry Fielding The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: character adversity difficulties challenges problems growth strength honesty truthfulness

Anxiety and fear produce energy. Where we focus that energy noticeably affects the quality of our lives:

Focus on the solution, not the problem.
Walter Anderson The Confidence Course: Sevens Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: anxiety fear energy problems challenges difficulties circumstances focus vision

In adversity, remember to keep an even mind.
Horace The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: adversity calm serenity peace balance attitude problems challenges difficulties

Rather than denying problems, focus inventively, intentionally on what solutions might look or feel like...Our mind is meant to generate ideas that help us escape circumstantial traps--if we trust it to do so. Naturally, not all hunches are useful. But then you only need a single good idea to solve a problem.
Marsha Sinetar To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension of Entrepreneuring
Categories: problems obstacles challenges difficulties focus solutions ideas mindmap mind

Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head...
William Shakespeare (As You Like It) Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: pain suffering adversity challenges obstacles difficulties character growth problems

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
King Solomon Proverbs 17:17, Holy Bible
Categories: friendships relationships brotherhood fellowship challenges problems difficulties difficulty support

Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy.
William Shakespeare, from Romeo and Juliet Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: adversity challenges difficulties wisdom growth adversities school of hard knocks

Do not fail
To learn from
The pure voice of an
Ever-flowing mountain stream
Splashing over the rocks.
Morihei Ueshiba The Art of Peace
Categories: obstacles challenges difficulties problems growth change learning nature education

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities.
Charles de Gaulle Words for All Occasions
Categories: adversity problems difficulties challenges obstacles character opportunity growth maturity

Many things which cannot be overcome when they stand together yield themselves up when taken little by little.
Sertorius The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: problems difficulties challenges obstacles planning effort problem-solving work

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr. The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: strength bravery courage adversity obstacles challenges problems activism leadership

You don't really conquer such a mountain. You conquer yourself. You overcome the sickness and everything else -- your pain, aches, fears -- to reach the summit.
James Whittaker Harvey Mackay's column "Achievers focus on road rather than the bumps" in the Feb. 21, 1999 Arizona Republic.
Categories: strength courage overcoming obstacles difficulties challenges problems success achievement

There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties or you alter yourself meeting them.
Phyllis Bottome Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: problems difficulty challenges obstacles character strength courage bravery adversity

There is no calamity that right words will not begin to redress.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: problems mistakes forgiveness circumstance difficulties challenges speech apology sympathy empathy

We win half the battle when we make up our minds to take the world as we find it, including the thorns.
Orison S. Marden The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: acceptance trials adversity problems difficulties illness disability difficult people challenges

Adversity has ever been considered as the state in which man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being free from flatterers.
Samuel Johnson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: problems difficulties challenges obstacles self-awareness growth change progress understanding wisdom

A man used to vissicitudes is not easily dejected.
Samuel Johnson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: problems obstacles difficulties challenges mood attitude emotion depression sadness experience

Nothing at all will be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
Samuel Johnson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: ideas criticism goal progress invention obstacles challenges difficulties success persevere

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win.
Margaret Thatcher The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: challenges problems obstacles difficulties difficulty determination perservere character courage bravery

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learned to bear its ills, without being overcome by them.
Juvenal The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: adversity challenges problems difficulties grief acceptance strength courage character fortitude

If you watch how nature deals with adversity, continually renewing itself, you can't help but learn.
Bernie Siegel, MD Handbook for the Soul
Categories: nature adversity difficulty challenges obstacles renewal change growth rebirth overcoming

Need and struggle are what excite and inspire us.
William James Words for All Occasions
Categories: desire obstacles challenges problems problem-solving work effort difficulties difficulty

Real life isn't always going to be perfect or go our way, but the recurring acknowledgement of what is working in our lives can help us not only to survive but surmount our difficulties.
Sarah Ban Breathnach Simple Abundance
Categories: change difficulties obstacles challenges adversity problems gratitude attitude focus growth

Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life's problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems. With total discipline we can solve all problems.
M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled
Categories: life problems obstacles challenges difficulties discipline will action character growth change

Those things that hurt, instruct.
Ben Franklin The Road Less Traveled
Categories: pain problems challenges difficulties obstacles wisdom education learning growth change

I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life.

I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself.
Walter Anderson The Confidence Course: Sevens Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: responsibility choice attitude problems challenges difficulties circumstances character life pain

Adversity is the foundation of virtue
Japanese proverb. The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: adversity character virtue growth proverb saying difficulties problems obstacles challenges change

One of the signs of maturity is a healthy respect for reality -- a respect that manifests itself in the level of one's aspirations and in the accuracy of one's assessment of the difficulties which separate the facts of today from the bright hopes of tomorrow.
Robert H. Davies The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: hope future present difficulties problems challenges adversity vision dreams goals

The true way to soften one's troubles is to solace those of others.
Madame De Maintenon The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: help service serving giving sharing volunteering volunteerism adversity challenges problems difficulty difficulties

When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: Give up or fight like hell.
Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor "Armstrong's drive, decency an inspiration" by Harvey Mackay, Arizona Republic, August 15, 2001
Categories: hope faith determination perseverance difficulties challenges adversity terminal illness disability problems

Each difficult moment has the potential to open my eyes and open my heart.
Myla Kabat-Zinn Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting
Categories: challenges opportunities opportunity obstacles difficulties difficulty problems adversity growth change learning

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider.
King Solomon Ecclesiastes 7:14
Categories: attitude learning growth self-improvement challenges problems difficulty difficulties obstacles meditation prayer

One cannot get through life without pain... What we can do is choose how to use the pain life presents to us.
Bernie S. Siegel, MD The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: pain disability illness adversity challenges difficulties problems growth circumstances personal responsibility

It is not every calamity that is a curse, and early adversity is often a blessing. Surmounted difficulties not only teach, but hearten us in our future struggles.
James Sharp The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: adversity setbacks problems difficulty challenges obstacles growth eduction learning strength courage

The question in life is not whether you get knocked down. You will. The question is, are you ready to get back up... And fight for what you believe in?
Dan Quayle 'Quayle enters 2000 race; takes his message to hometown folks' by Kris Mayes and Charles Kelly, Arizona Republic April 15, 1999
Categories: adversity problems challenges difficulties hard-knocks overcome overcoming obstacles determination persevere

Life is complex.
Each one of us must make his own path through life. There are no self-help manuals, no formulas, no easy answers. The right road for one is the wrong road for another...The journey of life is not paved in blacktop; it is not brightly lit, and it has no road signs. It is a rocky path through the wilderness.
M. Scott Peck Further Along the Road Less Traveled
Categories: life learning spirituality growth self-improvement direction meaning easy answers difficulties problems challenges

Adversity and loss make a man wise.``    
Welsh proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: adversity loss pain suffering difficulties challenges sickness illness grief depression problems troubles

He who finds diamonds must grapple in mud and mire because diamonds are not found in polished stones. They are made.
Henry B. Wilson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: success achievement work effort overcome overcoming obstacles challenges difficulty difficulties vision plan

Do not waste worry. If you're going to worry, worry well. Put that energy to good use; aim it at an answer. Don't forget: Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.
Walter Anderson The Confidence Course: Sevens Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: worry energy problems solutions difficulties challenges circumstances focus vision anxiety fear action

Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.
Helen Keller The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: attitude failure success vision persevere determination obstacles problems difficulties challenges overcoming effort beauty

Bless a thing and it will bless you. Curse it and it will curse you...If you bless a situation, it has no power to hurt you, and even if it is troublesome for a time, it will gradually fade out, if you sincerely bless it.
Emmet Fox Simple Abundance
Categories: blessing prayer growth acceptance attitude troubles problems challenges obstacles difficulty difficulties difficult situations

Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires...courage.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: goals dreams vision mission critics criticism difficulties challenges problems action courage strength planning

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 Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: character trials problems challenges difficulties suffering strength bravery vision ambition inspiration success achievement

Do not let trifles disturb your tranquility of mind. The little pinpricks of daily life when dwelt upon and magnified, may do great damage, but if ignored or dismissed from thought, will disappear from inanition. Most men have worried about things which never happened, and more men have been killed by worry than by hard work. Life is so great in its opportunities and possibilities, that you should rise confidently above the inevitable trifles incident to daily contact with the world. Life is too precious to be sacrificed for the nonessential and transient...Ignore the inconsequential.
Grenville Kleiser Light from Many Lamps
Categories: serenity peace tranquility circumstances problems difficulties challenges focus attitude worry work life opportunities

Peace does not dwell in outward things, but within the soul; we may preserve it in the midst of bitterest pain, if our will remains firm and submissive. Peace in this life springs from acquiescence to, not in exemption from, suffering.
Francois de Fenelon The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: peace serenity materialism suffering acceptance inner soul spirituality pain disability illness challenges obstacles depression

When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends. Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character, men of integrity with no weak spots.
James 1:2-4 Holy Bible
Categories: problems temptations difficulties obstacles challenges learning wisdom faith endurance character maturity integrity weakness

The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist, the opportunity in every difficulty.
L.P. Jacks Words for All Occasions
Categories: optimism optimistic pessimism pessimistic attitude choice opportunity opportunities problems obstacles difficulties challenges adversity

...it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually...It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.
M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled
Categories: problems obstacles challenges difficulties pain meaning life wisdom success failure courage growth spirituality

We had to learn ourselves, and furthermore we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life but instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life, daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and medication, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for the individual.
Victor Frankl The Thinker's Way: 8 Steps to a Richer Life
Categories: purpose goals meaning fulfillment self-awareness circumstances difficulties adversity challenges expectations actions deeds integrity

You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life.
James G. Bilkey The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: stress tension anxiety deadlines work business challenges problems obstacles schedules difficulties growth self-improvement

Botanists say that trees need the powerful March winds to flex their trunks and main branches, so that the sap is drawn up to nourish the budding leaves. Perhaps we need the gales of life in the same way, though we dislike enduring them. A blustery period in our fortunes is often the prelude to a new spring of life and health, success and happiness, when we keep steadfast in faith and look to the good in spite of appearances.
Jane Truax Words for All Occasions
Categories: storms difficulties challenges obstacles opportunities problems growth maturity faith success happiness attitude optimism optimistic

For me, all I can do is spit in the eye of my fears by living each day with as much passion and commitment as possible to what truly counts, such as love and justice. To give into the fear and hopelessness would be to declare defeat, something I am not ready to do while there is still the will to struggle.
Lawrence Paradis 'Beyond Fear and Pity' by Lawrence Paradis in the December 1998/January 1999 the issue of Mainstream magazine
Categories: courage strength fear living priorities love persevere determination overcoming challenges obstacles difficulty problems disability

Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and repeat to yourself the most comforting words of all: "This, too, shall pass."
Ann Landers Life's Little Treasure Book On Wisdom
Categories: problems difficulty difficulties challenges obstacles attitude persevere overcoming overcome troubles hard times change flexibility

What are these tools, these techniques of suffering, these means of experiencing the pain of problems constructively that I call discipline? There are four: delaying of gratification, acceptance of responsibility, dedication to truth, and balancing.
M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled
Categories: pain change growth discipline gratification responsibility integrity truth honesty balance wisdom learning obstacles challenges problems

It is not uncommon to find oneself thinking such thoughts as "I can't stand this" or "If only I didn't have to do this." As the psychologist Albert Ellis notes, such thoughts frequently involve whining. In essence, we are acting like babies and whining about things "not being fair." One can continue to do this if one choose, say Ellis. However, it is usually more efficient to simply accept the fact that life is not always a bowl of cherries, stop whining, and get on with the task.
John D. Bransford and Barry S. Stein The Ideal Problem Solver
Categories: life fairness worry stress anxiety problems difficulty difficulties challenges action whine complain mature maturity thought

There's no thrill in easy sailing when the skies are clear and blue, there's no joy in merely doing things which any one can do. But there is some satisfaction that is mighty sweet to take, when you reach a destination that you thought you'd never make.
Spirella The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: satisfaction fulfillment meaning purpose success overcome overcoming obstacles challenges difficulties problems achievement goal mission vision

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes, and seeing them gratified. He that labors in any great or laudable undertaking has his fatigues first supported by hope, and afterwards rewarded by joy...
``To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.
Samuel Johnson Light from Many Lamps
Categories: life joy achievement success difficulties challenges problems obstacles dreams vision work energy fatigue hope courage persevere persistance

Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day
Categories: attitude faith hope belief positive thinking optimism believe prayer inner wisdom problems solving difficulty difficulties obstacles challenges adversity

Action is the antidote to despair.
Joan Baez The New Beacon Book of Quotations by Women
Categories: worry stress challenges illness problems depression disability sadness adversity problems

He who has not tasted bitter, knows not what sweet is.
German proverb The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs
Categories: adversity challenges problems difficulties appreciation difficulties perspective

While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.
Benjamin Franklin Jump Start Your Brain
Categories: control self-control attitude optimism challenges difficulties problems

We all have inconveniences of one kind or another. How you deal with them ultimately determines how successful you are.
Craig McFarlane (blind motivational speaker) "Motivation overcomes 'minor inconvenience'" by Robbie Sherwood, 11/13/98 Arizona Republic
Categories: attitude positive thinking determination persevere handicaps disability adversity challenges difficulties problems coping cope overcoming overcome bad luck success

Go forward confidently, energetically attacking problems, expecting favorable outcomes.
Norman Vincent Peale Have a Great Day
Categories: confidence self-confidence self-esteem problems difficulties obstacles challenges work effort expectations goals vision belief

Believe that you are bigger than your difficulties, for you are, indeed.
Norman Vincent Peale Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year
Categories: attitude adversity problems challenges problems self-image

If there is a purpose in life at all, there must be a purpose in suffering and in dying. But no man can tell another what this purpose is. Each must find out for himself, and must accept the responsibility that his answer prescribes. If he succeeds he will continue to grow in spite of all indignities.
Gordon W. Allport, from the Introduction Man's Search for Meaning
Categories: pain suffering terminal illness disability cancer purpose meaning life death sickness die growth self-improvement learning adversity challenges problems difficulties

Life is difficult.
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled
Categories: life difficulties challenges pain obstacles problems truth acceptance perspective struggles illness disability problems adversity inner peace

...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.
Thomas Paine Power Quotes
Categories: difficulty difficulties obstacles challenges problems overcoming hardships struggle cost victory success achievement work effort action value leadership excellence pay the price goals

Within us all there are wells of thought and dynamos of energy which are not suspected until emergencies arise. Then oftentimes we find that it is comparatively simple to double or treble our former capacities and to amaze ourselves by the results achieved. Quotas, when set up for us by others, are challenges which goad us on to surpass ourselves. The outstanding leaders of every age are those who set up their own quotas and constantly achieve them.
Thomas J. Watson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: inner strength of character overcome overcoming reserves work effort achievement success challenges obstacles problems difficulty difficulties leaders leadership lead by example goals planning vision mission

A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
English proverb The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: difficulties challenges obstacles problems growth ability practice troubles adversity problems difficulty growth learning self-improvement skills problem-solving

Nine requisites for contented living:
Health enough to make work a pleasure.
Wealth enough to support your needs.
Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them.
Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them.
Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished.
Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor.
Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others.
Faith enough to make real the things of God.
Hope enough to remove all the anxious fears concerning the future.
Johann von Goethe The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: contentment satisfaction happiness fulfillment health wellness pleasure joy work vocation money strength determination courage bravery heart difficulties challenges obstacles problems illness grace sins forgiveness repentence patience perseverence mercy r