Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

Somewhere in the world there is a defeat for everyone. Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory. Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory.

The one thing I know, everyone respects the true person and everyone's not true with themselves. All of these people who are heroes, these guys who have been lily white and clean all their lives, if they went through what I went through, they would commit suicide. They don't have the heart that I have. I've lived places they can't defecate in.

He whom prosperity humbles, and adversity strengthens, is the true hero.

It is only the strong who are strengthened by suffering; the weak are made weaker.

Hard times don't create heroes. It is during the hard times when the 'hero' within us is revealed.

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.

No single, individual moment is in and of itself unendurable.

Adversity builds character and character takes you places money can't.

We've all had our moments of weakness, and if we manage to get through today without any, we'll be sure to have some tomorrow.

A champion shows who he is by what he does when he's tested. When a person gets up and says 'I can still do it', he's a champion.

A weak mind sinks under prosperity, as well as under adversity. A strong and deep mind has two highest tides – when the moon is at the full, and when there is no moon.

Learn to be difficult when it counts

He said that those who have endured some misfortune will always be set apart but that it is just that misfortune which is their gift and which is their strength.

Life, like classical music, is full of difficult passages that are conquered as much through endurance and determination as through any particular skill.

It's a hard life sometimes and the biggest temptation is to let how hard it is be an excuse to weaken

When things go wrong, don't go with them.

It requires courage not to surrender oneself to the ingenious or compassionate counsels of despair that would induce a man to eliminate himself from the ranks of the living; but it does not follow from this that every huckster who is fattened and nourished in self-confidence has more courage than the man who yielded to despair.

The greatness of man cannot be seen in the hours of comfort and convenience, but rather in moments of conflict/adversity

The true hero is flawed. The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles - preferably of his own making - in order to triumph.

Patience is the remedy for every misfortune.

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

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.

...most men and women will yield to the strong currents sucking them into the seas of ruin. Only the strongest in mind and spirit will swim against that current.

If the winds of fortune are temporarily blowing against you, remember that you can harness them and make them carry you toward your definite purpose, through the use of your imagination.

The rice grain suffers under the blow of the pestle. But admire its whiteness once the order is over. So it is with men and the world we live in. To be a man one must suffer the blows of misfortune.