Quotes about Adversity

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.

When my first semester grades came out, my mom and dad told me I wouldn't be playing football.

I grew up knowing only war, so for me, it was the way things were. It wasn't pleasant by any means.

When I'm interested in an aspect of someone's life, I want to ask about their experiences, their survival strategies, and what they do to keep their lives interesting.

If we survive danger it steels our courage more than anything else.

When the world is worth nothing, then heaven is worth something. I leave every Christian to judge by his own experience, whether we do not overlove the world more in prosperity than in adversity (374) [.]

As Socrates said when his wife first railed at him, and next threw a vessel of foul water upon him, "I thought when I heard the thunder, there would come rain

It is not that suffering or failure might happen, or that it will only happen to you if you are bad (which is what religious people often think), or that it will happen to the unfortunate, or to a few in other places, or that you can somehow by cleverness or righteousness avoid it. No, it will happen, and to you! Losing, failing, falling, sin, and the suffering that comes from those experiences—all of this is a necessary and even good part of the human journey.

Failure and suffering are the great equalizers and levelers among humans. Success is just the opposite. Communities and commitment can form around suffering much more than around how wonderful or superior we are.

It is no surprise that the first and always unwelcome message of male initiation rites is LIFE — IS — HARD.

It is the things that you cannot do anything about and the things that you cannot do anything with that do something with you.

Going somewhere good means having to go through and with the bad, and being unable to hold ourselves above it or apart from it.