Ben Okri Quotes

If man could write his own fate, he would have designed his journey to be without obstacles. Yet all obstacles come with valuable lessons designed just for you and only you. Suffering is imposed on us time and again so that one day we would become brave wise masters. That is, a strong being who is confidently aware of their intended direction in life, and fearlessly adding value to the world and their future.

I'm strong and spiritual, and I know that everything will work out for a reason.

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.

I had a calling inside of me. I had a sense that when I was going through experiences like living on the streets, losing my parents to AIDS, just having my whole world turned upside-down, there was this feeling inside of me like I was meant for something greater.

I am proof that one person can rise above any challenge, and if I can, then so will others if they are given the chance.

The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.

Everything happens for a reason, and hopefully it makes me a better person in the process.

Everything that, by the grace of the universe, I was able to become is the direct result of everything I went through.

I had to suffer, I had to fight, and now I feel great.

Having a dream, living that dream, losing that dream, dreaming again and then having that dream come true again is one of the greatest feelings ever because I'm stronger.

I grew up a loser, and I always felt like one, but I turned out pretty okay. I may be living proof that you can spend your whole life feeling like you're falling down a set of steps and still maybe land on your feet at the bottom.

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.

What once seemed such a curse has become a blessing. All the agony that threatened to destroy my life now seems like the fertile ground for greater trust, stronger hope, and deeper love.

It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured.\

I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew. I had to experience despair, I had to sink to the greatest mental depths, to thoughts of suicide, in order to experience grace.

If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a time or great personal growth ahead.

No book is a chapter, no chapter tells the whole story, no mistake defines who we are. Hope makes our lives page turners.

When I planted my pain in the field of patience it bore fruit of happiness.

No matter how many mistakes you've made in the past, or what sort of difficulties you struggle with now, you are destined to live in victory.

Unhappiness has nothing to teach, and resignation is ugly.

Don't give up. There are lessons to be learned even in the most horrendous pain. And you don't know that when you're young.

Your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel.

I've had my ups and downs. My fair share of bumpy roads and heavy winds. That's what made me what I am today.

Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy.