This week I’ve been thinking a lot about resilience, growth through hardship and mistakes, courage and perseverance. Check out my book recommendations in this area on my What I’m Reading page. So I’ve compiled a page of favorite quotes about courage & resilience. I’ll update this page and add more quotes as I find them or remember old favorites. I share a lot of quotes on Instagram too, so if you love them as much as I do, follow me there for daily inspiration. What’s your favorite quote?
I never lose. I either win or learn. – Nelson Mandela
Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck. – Dalai Lama
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. – Theodore Roosevelt
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. – Anaïs Nin
There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. – Louis L’Amour
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. – Albert Camus
Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again. – Nelson Mandela
I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it. – Maya Angelou
Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. – J. K. Rowling
Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength. – Theodore Roosevelt
We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. – Carlos Castaneda
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. – Khalil Gibran
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
Discomfort is the price of admission for a meaningful life. – Susan David (psychologist, Ted talk)
If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. – African Proverb
Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail. – Confucius
Above all, be the heroine in your life, not the victim. – Nora Ephron
Success is measured by how high you bounce when you hit bottom. – George S. Patton
Most people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure. – Napoleon Hill
It is never too late to be what you might have been. – George Eliot
Self-trust is the first secret to success. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.- Albert Einstein
Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning, anyone can start over and make a new ending. – Chico Xavier
It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything. – “Fight Club” movie
Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! – Barack Obama
There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope. – Bernard Williams
If your job is to eat a frog, eat it first thing in the morning, and if your job is to eat two frogs, eat the big one first. – Mark Twain
You can do so much in 10 minutes’ time. Ten minutes, once gone, are gone for good. Divide your life into 10-minute units and sacrifice as few of them as possible in meaningless activity. – Ingvar Kamprad, Founder of the furniture brand IKEA
So what do you think? What’s your favorite quote? Let me know in the comments below
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I really love the Nelson Mandela quote “I never lose, I either win or learn” . It’s so positive and true!
Also the Mark Twain one about eating frogs made me laugh.
Mandela left us so many wise words. As did Mark Twain (and funny too!)
These are great. I really like the Nora Ephron one about being the heroine of your own life.
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present. —Unknown