Mencius Quotes

There is no education like adversity.

Mortals grow swiftly in misfortune.

Man's soul is strengthened by suffering.

Difficulty shows what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. Why? So that you may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, everybody knows this!

No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself.

An easy life doesn't teach us anything. In the end it's the learning that matters: what we've learned and how we've grown

You don't get character because you're successful; you build character because of the hardships you face.

There is a certain kind of maturity that can be attained only through the discipline of suffering.

Strong and rare natures are thus created; misery, almost always a stepmother, is sometimes a mother; privation gives birth to power of soul and mind; distress is the nurse of self-respect; misfortune is a good breast for great souls.

A high character might be produced, I suppose, by continued prosperity, but it has very seldom been the case. Adversity, however it may appear to be our foe, is our true friend; and, after a little acquaintance with it, we receive it as a precious thing - the prophecy of a coming joy. It should be no ambition of ours to traverse a path without a thorn or stone.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

Adversity makes a man wise, not rich.

Adversity can strengthen us if it does not go on too long.

Suffering provides the gym equipment on which my faith can be exercised.

Suffering does not necessarily ennoble you.

Like a plant that starts up in showers and sunshine and does not know which has best helped it to grow, it is difficult to say whether the hard things or the pleasant things did me the most good.

I think men, growing up, you have to go through some form of hardship. You've got to harden the metal.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

When you see how you react when you suffer that's when you know what you are made of.

Poverty is the schoolmaster of character.

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.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

I grew up below the poverty line; I didn't have as much as other people did. I think it made me stronger as a person, it built my character. Now I have a 4.0 grade point average and I want to go to college, and just become a better person.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.