Echoes

Character is the virtue of hard times.

Occasions of adversity best discover how great virtue or strength each one hath. For occasions do not make a man frail, but they show what he is.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health.

Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places.

So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity — even under the most difficult circumstances — to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." … You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

It is good for us that we sometimes have sorrows and adversities, for they often make a man lay to heart that he is only a stranger and sojourner, and may not put his trust in any worldly thing. It is good that we sometimes endure contradictions, and are hardly and unfairly judged, when we do and mean what is good. For these things help us to be humble, and shield us from vain-glory.

The lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.

Through endurance we conquer.

It is the part of cowardice, not of courage, to go and crouch in a hole under a massive tomb, to avoid the blows of fortune.

Things are not so painful and difficult of themselves, but our weakness or cowardice makes them so.

My Son, patience and humility in adversities are more pleasing to Me than much comfort and devotion in prosperity.

Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.

He who endures, conquers.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.