Francis de Sales Quotes

You've only mastered the storm you can sleep through.

The secret of joy is the mastery of pain.

The arrows of malevolence ... however barbed and well pointed, never can reach the most vulnerable part of me; though, whilst I am up as a mark, they will be continually aimed.

If you're strong enough on the inside, you can handle anything that comes at you on the outside.

Dark clouds may hang on me sometimes, but I'll work it out.

I do whatever pushes me hardest. It's coming at me and I try to... it's like uninvited guest and I have to wrestle them out the door or through the window - get them out and get over with them quickly.

If you live in an oppressive society, you've got to be resilient. You can't let each little thing crush you. You have take every encounter and make yourself larger, rather than allow yourself to be diminished by it.

I suppose I didn't cry in all the cancer crap stuff because I felt I couldn't lose the battle, and part of the battle was holding myself together.

No day-to-day mishaps or indignities can really compromise your sense of self after you've survived a deep tragedy.

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

You're going to have highs and lows, but it's how you get through the lows.

You cannot build up a character in a solitude; you need a formed character to stand a solitude.

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

We can choose to gather to our hearts the thorns of disappointment, failure, loneliness, and dismay in our present situation. Or we can gather the flowers of God's grace, boundless love, abiding presence, and unmatched joy. I choose to gather the flowers.

But courage in fighting is by no means the only form, nor perhaps even the most important. There is courage in facing poverty, courage in facing derision, courage in facing the hostility of one's own herd. In these, the bravest soldiers are often lamentably deficient. And above all there is the courage to think calmly and rationally in the face of danger, and to control the impulse of panic fear or panic rage.

We all have an unsuspected reserve of strength inside that emerges when life puts us to the test.

There are seldom, if ever, any hopeless situations, but there are many people who lose hope in the face of some situations.

First principle: never to let one's self be beaten down by persons or by events.

Never does a man know the force that is in him till some mighty affliction or grief has humanized the soul.

I think I was as mentally tough as I've ever been. I felt like I handled the situation both on and off the court extremely well. I felt like I needed to.

You are free to smile in the midst of massive tests and challenges, knowing that you have chosen to play this game, and that you have dominion over all the appearances of earth.

As a rule, the mind, residing in a body that has become weakened by pampering, is also weak, and where there is no strength of mind there can be no strength of soul.

Self-acceptance comes from meeting life's challenges vigorously. Don't numb yourself to your trials and difficulties, nor build mental walls to exclude pain from your life. You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory.

We're all going to have tests in our life... We never know when that test comes, but we know we have to be prepared for it. We're all going to be tested. The dark energy is going to knock on all of our doors.

You could cry, get worried or angry like any other normal human being, as long as you remembered that, up above, your spirit was laughing out loud at all those thorny situations.