Daisaku Ikeda Quotes

Throughout the journey of my life, I have maintained a strong faith in the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity. I deeply believe in one's own positive will to overcome even the most daunting challenges.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.

Even when I'm in pain, I play.

I’m grateful I had the strength to fight. It takes courage to believe the best is yet to come, especially when you are flat on your back and don’t know if you’re going to see tomorrow. I’m no Pollyanna, but I believe optimism is a choice — a muscle that gets stronger with use. Right foot, left foot…just keep moving.

If our expectations, if our fondest prayers and dreams, are not realized then we should all bear in mind that the greatest glory of living lies not in never falling but in rising every time you fall.

It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated... it is finished when it surrenders.

But I've never once thought that I wouldn't get back, as if you do think like that, then you're in trouble.

One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep to wake.

The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.

Never be discouraged. If I were sunk in the lowest pits of Nova Scotia, with the Rocky Mountains piled on me, I would hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I would come out on top.

You can lay in bed and think you don't stand a chance, that's what all of us thought, and here we are. We ended up doing all right.

'Give up... it's time to quit,' I don't think I've ever really accepted those kinds of words in my life or vocabulary.

The secret is not to give up hope. It's very hard not to because if you're really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.

I learned that I'm really good with perseverance. I'm stronger than I thought I was inside. I also learned that I don't give up easily and that I trust and believe that things are going to be OK.

All my life, I have been a positive thinker... I have always been able to survive by telling myself that no matter how bad things are, they will one day be better. And that out of every event - no matter how tragic - one can always find a way to survive and even, perhaps, to be a little bit happy.

He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!

One should be brave. It's life, there will be ups and downs. It's only when you are down, that you get the strength to get back up.

I think just that dog inside of you. When things suck, just to still fight.

Never lose hope under adverse situations.

We've all lived through something horrific, but the strength and beauty and knowledge that we're going to win eventually is what keeps me going.

Your struggle is your strength. If you can resist becoming negative, bitter or hopeless, in time, your struggles will give you everything.

What is stronger, fear or hope?

If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.

Reality is harsh. It can be cruel and ugly. Yet no matter how much we grieve over our environment and circumstances nothing will change. What is important is not to be defeated, to forge ahead bravely. If we do this, a path will open before us.