Hendrik Willem Van Loon Quotes

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

The constant abrasion and decay of our lives makes the soil of our future growth.

It is by those who have suffered that the world has been advanced.

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.

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

The beast that bears you fastest to perfection is suffering.

We cannot afford not to fight for growth and understanding, even when it is painful, as it is bound to be.

The process of achievement comes through repeated failures and the constant struggle to climb to a higher level.

If something is going on and you are struggling, embrace it. You are growing.

Failure in life does not matter; the greatest misfortune is standing still.

There is no growth if there is no change. There is no change if there is no loss. There is no loss if there is no pain.

It is through suffering that learning comes.

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.

Mistakes are the stepping stones to success.

Life is change. If you aren't growing and evolving, you're standing still, and the rest of the world is surging ahead.

Our way is not soft grass, it's a mountain path with lots of rocks. But it goes upwards, forward, toward the sun.

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

Every time you fail, you learn more.

Change is the nature of life but challenge is the future of life. So challenge the changes. Never change the challenges.

Life is very hard, isn't it? It does kill you, after all.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it.

Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life, these failures. What would life be without them? It would not be worth having if it were not for struggles. Where would be the poetry of life? Never mind the struggles, the mistakes. I never heard a cow tell a lie, but it is only a cow-never a man. So never mind these failures, these little backslidings; hold the ideal a thousand times, and if you fail a thousand times, make the attempt once more.

We can take suffering to be an opportunity to learn and to grow. But if we are honest, we should remember that this is making the best of a bad job, and that minimising suffering takes priority over optimising its outcome.

There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.