Anais Nin Quotes

Get yourself prepared, educationally and emotionally, and develop mental toughness. Don't ever give up.

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities

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

The key to growing up well, is being tough enough.

We develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and obstacles.

The important thing is to firmly fix our gaze on our own weaknesses, not run away from them, but to battle them head-on and establish a solid self that nothing can sway. Hardships forge and polish our lives, so that eventually they shine with brilliant fortune and benefit. If left in its raw, unpolished form, even the most magnificent gem will not sparkle. The same applies to our lives.

To be a warrior is not a simple matter of wishing to be one. It is rather an endless struggle that will go on to the very last moment of our lives. Nobody is born a warrior, in exactly the same way that nobody is born an average man. We make ourselves into one or the other.

The battle for self-discipline may leave you a bit bruised and battered but always a better person.

Remember that no talent, no self-denial, no brains, no character, are required to set up in the fault-finding business. Nothing external can have any power over you unless you permit it.

Talent is nurtured in solitude; character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

I can't imagine how anyone can say: "I'm weak," and then remain so. After all, if you know it, why not fight against it, why not try to train your character? The answer was: "Because it's so much easier not to!

What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel. We have wept long enough. No more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is man-making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we want.

It is a law of nature that you must do difficult things to gain strength and power. As with working out, after a while you make the connection between doing difficult things and the benefits you get from doing them, and you come to look forward to doing these difficult things.

I vowed I wouldn't ever let anyone destroy me again. I was going to work at it every day, so hard that I would be the toughest guy in the world. By the end of practice, I wanted to be physically tired, to know that I'd been through a workout. If I wasn't tired, I must have cheated somehow, so I stayed a little longer.

People need trouble - a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. Only vegetables are happy.

In the end, it's a mental maturity to let your best come out.

It takes a lot to wound a man without illusions.

The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.

There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.

Surmounting difficulty is the crucible that forms character.

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men!

I'm pretty easily overwhelmed and pretty tough as well. I think I'm tougher than I used to be. There's been a lot of hardship along the way. But that's what life is. And it's how you deal with those things, and how you let them shape you that makes you a better person and defines what sort of person you're going to be.

As tough as I've been on anybody, as hard as I've ever been on anybody, I have been harder on myself. By far.