I was eight years old and scared, and had no idea what was going on

If miracles were easy, the would be everywhere.

We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship, and to be compelled to...

Sometimes you just have to trust your instincts; it may be all you have to trust.

There were times of hardship when people forget the courage they need to keep fighting; and survive. But I think as long as we have something to believe in; to keep close in our hearts,...

A gem, like you, is made beautiful by being polished. It’s not an easy undertaking, but a stone that exists undisturbed among others just is…but the most beautiful stand out because they face being alone,...

Throw out old clothes and shoes, and train your brain to get rid of old thoughts and ideas.

Sacrifice has great value in that it not only achieves personal success but builds successful communities, nations and humanity. Each moment spent in selfless sacrifice makes you a stronger person, and such strength fosters the...

Au milieu de l’hiver, j’apprenais enfin qu’il y avait en moi un été invincible.

I think men, growing up, you have to go through some form of hardship. You’ve got to harden the metal.

… when it seemed at every turn that the winds of fate had blown our lives afoul, financially, emotionally, or idealistically. Look at all that we endured. Look at all we managed to light along...

I’ve figured out why they call it a trial. Because you try all you can to pull through it. 

What a weary time those years were — to have the desire and the need to live but not the ability.

Our long wanderings have made a man out of him, too. They have not only strengthened his frame and hardened his constitution, but they have given stability to his character. He is thoughtful and prudent,...

Suffering is the fire by which love is tested.

Every violent storm will eventually give way to sunshine; every dark night will finally fade into dawn.

Easily mistaken, it is not about a love for adversity, it is about knowing a strength and a faith so great that adversity, in all its adverse manifestations, hardly even exists.

That’s the thing about pain, it demands to be felt.

But William Stoner knew of the world in a way that few of his younger colleagues could understand. Deep in him, beneath his memory, was the knowledge of hardship and hunger and endurance and pain.

Lodged”The rain to the wind said,’You push and I’ll pelt.’They so smote the garden bed.That the flowers actually knelt,And lay lodged — though not dead.I know how the flowers felt.

I didn’t care if he was a genius or a fucking idiot, he was rotting away, and it wasn’t fun to watch.

That’s life. It’s a series of knock-down, drag-out fights with yourself and others that will leave you lying on the ground bruised and bloody and drooling all over your shag carpeting. But all that doesn’t...

It is not an easy thing to be a woman and love with the whole heart: which men do not understand — having many loves, and delighting in danger and war.

… being different, being unique … that afforded me a life, a journey that I am now so thankful for.

If you complain about small calamities, Allah will give you great calamities.

He were found drowned. He were coming home very hopeless o’ aught on earth. He thought God could na be harder than men; mappen not so hard; mappen as tender as a mother; mappen tenderer....

Though you may hear me holler,And you may see me cry–I’ll be dogged, sweet baby,If you gonna see me die.

Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.

You can’t be a rebel without the scars that come with it. Truth is, some days scars are just as ugly as they are beautiful.

Suddenly she hated them all because they were different from her, because they carried their losses with an air that she could never attain, would never wish to attain. She hated them, these smiling, light-footed...

Take a chance and risk it all or play it safe and suffer defeat.

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny…

I read the bible every day and the one thing I have noticed is that those characters that are closest to God seem to be the ones who question and wonder and think more than...

Tell a child, that he will soon be homeless; he will slowly detach from the world. Tell that same child that he is now homeless, he will abandon all foundations. Tell the child he has...

The bitterest hardships, the most daunting trials; none of these are burdens if it means being with you.

My friends, don’t idolize hardship. What you idolize is what your heart will look for and what your heart looks for is what you will have. And don’t capitalize on misfortune, because you will always...

Almost every sin is committed for the sake of sensual pleasure; and sensual pleasure is overcome by hardship and distress arising either voluntarily from repentance, or else involuntarily as a result of some salutary and...

…the more a human creature has tasted of bitter things the more it hungers after the sweet things of life. And we, wrapped round in rags of our virtues, and regarding others through the mist...

Fire tests gold, suffering tests brave men.

Dreams and freedom are the same. In order for them to be, they come with a price.

I’ve felt that I was trying to row a heavily loaded boat in a storm. I’ve had so much trouble just trying to keep afloat that I couldn’t be bothered about things that didn’t matter,...

When the going gets tough: the poor close their eyes, the rich open their wallets.

Like Gandalf, God knows the battle going on inside our hobbitlike selves, the wrestling match between the Baggins and the Took. The Baggins side of us takes our creature comforts for granted. We assume these...

Under every layer of pain, another layer of recovery lies in wait, the sweet, forever surprising truth of endurance.

Your true love for God is demonstrated through your ability to hold onto your faithfulness in the midst of Prosperity and Poverty, Happiness and Hardships, Sickness and Success; in whatever is Appealing or Appalling!

Greed is mistaken nobility. Instead of robbing all the pain and hardship from people’s lives and rescuing them from danger, greed robs provisions from providers.

Hollowness: that I understand. I’m starting to believe that there isn’t anything you can do to fix it. That’s what I’ve taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have...

Understand that by giving something a name, you own it. I find that by naming it, you give yourself a sense of purpose. Like wanting to become a doctor or lawyer or writer for instance,...

Fear is the negative emotion that brings every traceable hardship into our life. Only Love can free us from fear.

Once again, mules and their attendants would give him company. Often he thought he and the mules had no difference. Both carried other’s loads.