Rainer Maria Rilke Quotes

The thing is, the only real sign of life is growth. And growth requires pain. So to choose life is to accept pain.

People naturally tend toward inertia. That's why self improvement is such a struggle. But that's also why adversity lies at the heart of every success. The process of achievement comes through repeated failures and the constant struggle to climb to a higher level.

Those periods of struggling to overcome challenges are what people find to be the most enjoyable times.

I have lived long enough to be battered by the realities of life, and not too long to be downed by them.

When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.

Life is not so much what you accomplish as what you overcome.

It is clear that we must trust what is difficult; everything alive trusts in it, everything in Nature grows and defends itself any way it can and is spontaneously itself, tries to be itself at all costs and against all opposition. We know little, but that we must trust in what is difficult is a certainty that will never abandon us; it is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be one more reason for us to do it.

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 realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

The journey is never ending. There's always gonna be growth, improvement, adversity; you just gotta take it all in and do what's right, continue to grow, continue to live in the moment.

Half of us is easy, the other half is hard. Even though we do our best, we end up being scarred.

A little bit of pain is good for you. I feel alive. Everybody needs struggle. Once you overcome an obstacle, you springboard into the future. Life is interesting and short and it's not supposed to be easy, and if it is, you're probably just in denial and you're existing here like a zombie.

Why did the achievers overcome problems while thousands are overwhelmed by theirs? They refused to hold on to the common excuses for failure. They turned their stumbling blocks into stepping stones. They realized that they couldn't determine every circumstance in life but they could determine their choice of attitude towards every circumstance.

We learn to fight and to grow strong by fighting.

Most very successful people can remember that their success was discovered and built out of adversity of some kind. It's not the problems that beset us-problems are surprisingly pretty much the same for millions of others-it's how we react to problems that determines not only our degree of growth and maturity but our future success-and, perhaps, much of our health.

Obstacles are found everywhere, and in overcoming them we nourish ourselves.

That's the thing about life. A lot of the time, it isn't easy at all. We just have to try to make the best of it.

I need people who look at adversity as a challenge and failure as a learning opportunity.

Nothing, I am sure, calls forth the faculties so much as the being obliged to struggle with the world.

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more on it. A strength which becomes clearer and stronger through experiences of such obstacles is the only strength that can conquer them. Resistance is only a waste of strength.

I think life goes through a cycle of losing and refinding yourself all the time. Everyone has disappointments all the time, some of them pretty small, some of them pretty big.

There is nothing that teaches you more than regrouping after failure and moving on.

It is not on the pinnacle of success and ease where men and women grow most. It is often down in the valley of heartache and disappointment and reverses where men and women grow.

The process of life is ever unfolding, guiding you, pushing you, preparing you for the next part of the process. Difficult challenges, bad days, upset feelings, moments of confusion are part of life's process. Perhaps these things are there to keep us alert, to make us stronger, or to test our resolve to keep moving forward.

To bear lightly the neck's yoke brings strength; but kicking against the goads is the way of failure.

Growth only really comes at the point of resis­tance, but that is the moment that we tend to stop. Because it hurts... pushing our lim­its, is a mus­cle that can be cul­ti­vated like any other - incrementally.