Lynda Barry Quotes

The age-old mistake, which has stunted countless lives, is the assumption that because physical hardship in childhood makes you physically tough, emotional hardship must make you emotionally tough.

I think it's an amazing quality to be able to roll with the punches and not be totally ruined as a person because life's been rough for you. That's a really admirable way to go through your life.

I'm attracted to subjects who overcome tremendous suffering and learn to cope emotionally with it.

Human beings have enormous resilience.

I probably wouldn't be a songwriter if I didn't grow up the way I did. It was difficult and it was at times very scary to grow up in a household so unsettled and at times very violent. But, it also, I guess it earned me a sort of wisdom at a young age that's served me well.

If you have high self-esteem, you might still know times of emotional suffering, but less often and with faster recovery-your resilience is greater.

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.

If you listen long enough you can hear my skin grow tough love is painful to the touch must be made of stronger stuff.

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

It is not just a person's physical constitution, their intellegence, their education, or even their social conditioning that enables them to withstand hardship. Much more significant is their inner development. And while some may be able to survive through sheer willpower, the ones who suffer the least are those who have a high degree of patience and courage in the face of adversity.

The world can be a hard place sometimes... You have to have heart. You have to be strong. Parents want their children to grow up to be strong. Not just any strong, mind you, but loving strong.

To be emotionally resilient and to overcome your circumstances, not through fighting, but through being courageous and having endurance was something I thought was of primary importance.

Also, perhaps children are sterner than grown-up people in their refusal to suffer, in their refusal, even, to feel at all.

I don't remember the first half of my life. All I say is a happy childhood is the worst possible preparation for life.

I'm not saying that experiencing loss is why I can cope with darker worlds - I'm not saying that for a second - but I think it opens up a side of you in terms of work that wouldn't be as accessible had that stuff not happened.

When you have a tough childhood, you either cry or make a joke.

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

I don't react to a tragic happening any more. I took so many bad things as a kid and some people think I don't care about anything. It's just too hard for me to get emotional. I can't cry no more.

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.

I don't think of myself as unbreakable. Perhaps I'm just rather flexible and adaptable.

Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.

I'm a strong man, and usually I get over hurts and it makes me stronger when I come back.

I've always been pretty independent, no matter what situation: good, bad, ugly, happy, sad. I dig deep, and I get over it.

I wish I had tougher skin, but I don't.

The cognitive skills that underpin resilience, then, seem like they can indeed be learned over time, creating resilience where there was none.