Life isn’t easy and we all face hardships. But what’s important is our resilience in the face of those hardships. How can look at the world so that we can turn obstacles into challenges to be overcome?
Words have power — they can motivate and inspire us to carry on when we think we’re close to giving up. That’s why we scoured the web (and our favorite books!) for the best quotes about persisting in the face of adversity.
Here’s our favorite 58 quotes about resilience, separated into quotes about Life, Work, Courage, and Relationships.
Table of Contents
Quotes about Resilience in Life
“There’s no such thing as ruining your life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.”
― Sophie Kinsella, Author, from her novel The Undomestic Goddess
“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”
― Nelson Mandela
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
― Nelson Mandela
“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
― Maya Angelou
“The human capacity for burden is like bamboo – far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.”
― Jodi Picoult, in her novel My Sister’s Keeper
“A Hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”
― Christopher Reeve
“Experience life in all possible ways — good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light, summer-winter. Experience all the dualities. Don’t be afraid of experience, because the more experience you have, the more mature you become.”
― Osho
“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”
― Steve Maraboli, personal growth author in his book Life, the Truth, and Being Free
“Sometimes carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.”
― Albert Camus, novelist
“What helps you persevere is your resilience and commitment.”
― Roy T. Bennett, from his book The Light in the Heart
“When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realize that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.”
― A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.”
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“It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment.”
― Bram Stoker, from his book Dracula
“Resilience isn’t a single skill. It’s a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive.”
― Jean Chatzky
“What helps you persevere is your resilience and commitment.”
― Roy T. Bennett, from his book The Light in the Heart
“No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That’s the only way to keep the roads clear.”
― Greg Kincaid
“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”
― Robert Jordan, from his novel The Fires of Heaven
“Strong people alone know how to organize their suffering so as to bear only the most necessary pain.”
― Emil Dorian
“Never say that you can’t do something, or that something seems impossible, or that something can’t be done, no matter how discouraging or harrowing it may be; human beings are limited only by what we allow ourselves to be limited by: our own minds. We are each the masters of our own reality; when we become self-aware to this: absolutely anything in the world is possible.
Master yourself, and become king of the world around you. Let no odds, chastisement, exile, doubt, fear, or ANY mental virii prevent you from accomplishing your dreams. Never be a victim of life; be it’s conqueror.”
― Mike Norton
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”
― Helen Keller
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
― Helen Keller
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
— Kahlil Gibran
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”
— Vivian Greene
“My barn having burned down, I can now see the moon.”
― Mizuta Masahide, 17th century Japanese poet
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
― Jon Kabat-Zinn
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
― Arnold Schwarzenegger
“There comes a time in your life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who do not. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living.”
― José N. Harris
“Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up.”
― Mary Holloway
“Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going.”
― Yasmin Mogahed
“Someone said adversity builds character, but someone else said adversity reveals character. I’m pleasantly surprised with my resilience. I persevere, and not just blindly. I take the best, get rid of the rest, and move on, realizing that you can make a choice to take the good.”
― Brooke Shields
“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”
― C.S. Lewis
“Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”
― Japanese proverb
“The very things that hold you down are going to lift you up.”
― Timothy Mouse in Dumbo
“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
Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.
― Oliver Goldsmith
Quotes about Resilience in Work
“The moment we believe that success is determined by an ingrained level of ability as opposed to resilience and hard work, we will be brittle in the face of adversity.”
― Joshua Waitzkin
“Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.”
― Gever Tulley
“She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.”
― Elizabeth Edwards,
“To be successful, you have to be out there, you have to hit the ground running”
― Richard Branson, Author, From the book Losing My Virginity
“Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life.”
― J.K. Rowling, Author of the Harry Potter series
“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.”
― Henry Ward Beecher
“Each one of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”
― Sheryl Sandberg, Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy
“Success and failure come and go, but don’t let them define you. It’s who you are that matters.”
― Kamal Ravikant, Live Your Truth
“A good school teaches you resilience – that ability to bounce back.”
― Kate Reardon
Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.
― Babe Ruth, Major League Baseball player
Quotes about Resilience and Courage
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”
― James Neil Hollingworth, writing under the pen name Ambrose Redmoon
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
― Margaret Thatcher
“The future doesn’t belong to the light-hearted. It belongs to the brave.”
― Ronald Reagan
The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat.”
― Woodrow Wilson
“Resilience is, of course, necessary for a warrior. But a lack of empathy isn’t.”
― Phil Klay
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
― Vicktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
“We will either find a way, or make one.”
― Anibal Barca
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
― Winston S. Churchill
Quotes about Resilience in Relationships
“My scars remind me that I did indeed survive my deepest wounds. That in itself is an accomplishment. And they bring to mind something else, too. They remind me that the damage life has inflicted on me has, in many places, left me stronger and more resilient. What hurt me in the past has actually made me better equipped to face the present.”
– Steve Goodier, Author
“Someone I once loved gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.”
― Mary Oliver
“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
“I am not angry or sad or happy to see you. I could not give a shit. You don’t even ripple.”
― Gillian Flynn, Author, from the novel Dark Places
“If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.”
― Shane Koyczan
“There comes a time in your life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who do not. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living.”
― José N. Harris
“You all know that I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces – my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope. These graces have carried me through difficult times and they have brought more joy to the good times than I ever could have imagined.”
― Elizabeth Edwards,
“My life was my life; I would have to stare it down, somehow, and make it work for me.”
― Paula McLain