Tom Robbins Quotes

But, ah me! where is the faultless human creature who can persevere in a good resolution, without sometimes failing and falling back?

We stumble and fall constantly, even when we are most enlightened.

I was shown a fledgling learning to fly. It's first efforts were very feeble. But as it used its wings more and more, they became stronger until it found the freedom of flight and was able to soar to great heights and fly great distance without any effort. I heard the words: Faith comes with practice. Live by faith until it becomes rocklike unshakable, and find the true freedom of the spirit.

The Samurai always has to rise and move on, because new challenges will come.

I am not a rodeo clown, like, "Everything is awesome!" I really worked hard on myself and things and struggled to get to a good place, to a better place.

A man was defined not by his flaws, but by how he overcame them.

At times, our strengths propel us so far forward we can no longer endure our weaknesses and perish from them.

In times of hurt and discouragement, it may be consoling for all of us to recall that no one can do anything permanently to us that will last for eternity. Only we ourselves can affect our eternal progression.

Pain happens to everyone. To grow up, to fulfill your potential, to develop into what God wants you to be-this process takes support. No one succeeds alone.

Life is not easy for anyone. Sometimes you don't see the challenges on the outside, but every single one of us has both those and everything that goes on inside as well. Give it your all. Dare to be all you can be.

I want to share some insight into why someone would want to be a SEAL. A lot of us faced obstacles growing up. I didn't have any type of real nurturing as a kid. I hope people will relate to my story and go, 'Hey, if this guy can do it, so can I.'

I was a slightly overweight, spiky-fringed, rat's-tailed '80s girl who was just showing up. That's all I've ever really done to get here, just kept showing up. Even when I didn't want to. That's what I do.

It takes facing obstacles to grow strong enough to overcome them.

You have to handle the challenges and emerge stronger from them, rather than allow them to bog you down.

It's one of those things that I use everything that I go through... to be better. I use it all to just fuel the fire, to grow and learn from.

Do not forget: seek to win all your battles, including those you fight against yourself. Do not fear the scars. Do not be afraid of victory.

After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us toward is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven.

Man's freedom is never in being saved from troubles, but it is the freedom to take trouble for his own good, to make the trouble an element in his joy.

The lessons we learn from patience will cultivate our character, lift our lives, and heighten our happiness.

Our task is to become our best selves. One of God's greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying again, for no failure ever need be final.

Carry in your memory, for the rest of your life, the good things that came out of those difficulties. They will serve as a proof of your abilities and will give you confidence when you are faced by other obstacles.

You do not need to let anything get you down, but if you are down you certainly need not let anything keep you down.

At last, the answer why. The lesson that had been so hard to find, so difficult to learn, came quick and clear and simple. The reason for problems is to overcome them. Why, that’s the very nature of man, I thought, to press past limits, to prove his freedom. It isn’t the challenge that faces us, that determines who we are and what we are becoming, but the way we meet the challenge, whether we toss a match at the wreck or work our way through it, step by step, to freedom.

... the deep experience of the lonely climb on the mountain of success brings a wealth beyond power to compute. To you all suffering is understandable and your heart opens wide in sympathy.

Every challenge takes you a little deeper and awakens you again and again. Without the challenges, you probably would go to back to sleep. The challenges keep you awake.