James Agee Quotes

I believe, indeed, that it is more laudable to suffer great misfortunes than to do great things.

For God's love, take things patiently, have sense, Think! We are prisoners and shall always be. Fortune has given us this adversity, Some wicked planetary dispensation, Some Saturn's trick or evil constellation Has given us this, and Heaven, though we had sworn The contrary, so stood when we were born. We must endure it, that's the long and short.

There exist some evils so terrible and some misfortunes so horrible that we dare not think of them, whilst their very aspect makes us shudder; but if they happen to fall on us, we find ourselves stronger than we imagined, we grapple with our ill luck, and behave better than we expected we should.

Prosperity has no power over adversity.

If you bear the cross unwillingly, you make it a burden, and load yourself more heavily; but you must bear it.

No matter where you go, poor people have the capacity to endure. Some people even compliment us on it, as if endurance is all we can achieve.

Those whom fate has dealt hard knocks remain vulnerable for ever afterwards.

Where life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valor to dare to live.

Strange how it was always the spoiled who weakened and cried first, and it was the injured, the maimed, the blind, and the poor who fought on alone.

I have often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortunes.

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.

The only thing I know is this: I am full of wounds and still standing on my feet.

To learn patience is not to rebel against every hardship.

Doing what's right is no guarantee against misfortune.

Not everyone is lucky enough to understand how delicious it is to suffer.

The more one has suffered, the less one demands. To protest is a sign one has traversed no hell.

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

Tis misfortune that awakens ingenuity, or fortitude, or endurance, in hearts where these qualities had never come to life but for the circumstance which gave them a being.

Life…never gave me a chance to be soft.

Quests always have their ups and downs,' rumbled the giant. 'The point is never to give up, even if you're falling off a cliff. You never know what might happen on the way to the bottom.

Life will hit you hard in the face, wait for you to get back up just so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.

The greatest value in trouble comes to those who bow lowest before the throne.

A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you'd think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune

The person who can dominate during rough times is the person who can dominate, period.

There are many trials in life which do not seem to come from unwisdom or folly; they are silver arrows shot from the bow of God, and fixed inextricably in the quivering heart - they are meant to be borne - they were not meant, like snow or water, to melt as soon as they strike; but the moment an ill can be patiently borne it is disarmed of its poison, though not of its pain.