Resilience and perseverance help you win the war.
By Sofia Stewart — Written on Jun 04, 2020
What does it mean to be resilient? Like the resilience quotes below powerfully explain, similar to a rubber ball, resilient people learn how to bounce back when they’ve hit rock bottom.
Rock (Rocky Balboa) said it best when he mentioned that “It’s not about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward.”
Resilience is taking our experience in life and changing our perspective to perceive a positive outcome. Resilient people understand that they choose their attitude, which will determine the results of their challenges.
Resilience comes in several different ways. People laugh through their problems, while others just accept it. Resisting to give in is a key factor in becoming resilient.
Learning to persevere has helped some of the most influential world changers, like Michelle Obama, Simone Biles, and Stephan Hawkins, all of whom are quoted below.
Practicing self-care is the first step to bouncing back in life. Disconnecting from social media, or other social platforms can help promote more time for self-reflection in your life. This also prevents us from dealing with the comparison of other peers.
Vocational activities with meaning motivate us to find purpose again after any fallen battle. Engaging in mindfulness not only helps us see new perspectives, but being thoughtful about our actions also inspires us to volunteer to serve others to help them along in their journey as well.
Lastly, asking for help when you feel yourself wanting to give up is a show of strength — not weakness — and a support system can be that final push to help you achieve the things you want to in life.
Here are the best resilience quotes that help you break through barriers:
1. "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying 'I will try again tomorrow.'" —Mary Anne Radmacher
2. “Fall seven times and stand up eight.” —Japanese Proverb
3. “It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.” —Albert Einstein
4. “Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” —Thomas Edison
5. “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” —Henry Ford
6. “A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.” —B.F. Skinner
7. “Ask yourself this question: 'Will this matter a year from now?'” —Richard Carlson
8. “What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same? I doubt you'd be happy. So, why are you so afraid of change” —Karen Salmansohn
9. “As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better.” —Dr. Steve Maraboli
10. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” —Robert Collier
11. “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” —Confucius
12. "Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” —Newt Gingrich
14. “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” —Julie Andrews
15. “Through perseverance, many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.” —Benjamin Disraeli
16. “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” —William Feather
17. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” —Dale Carnegie
18. “Failure is often that early morning hour of darkness which precedes the dawning of the day of success.” —Leigh Mitchell Hodges
19. “We will either find a way or make one.” —Hannibal
20. “It always seems impossible until it's done.” —Nelson Mandela
21. “The best way out is always through.” —Robert Frost
22. “A winner is just a loser who tried one more time.” —George M. Moore Jr.
23. "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." —Bill Cosby
24. “Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.” —George Edward Woodberry
25. "When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you … never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." —Harriet Beecher Stowe
26. “We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.” ― Stephen Covey
27. “Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going.” ― Yasmin Mogahed
28. “We all have battles to fight. And it's often in those battles that we are most alive: it's on the frontlines of our lives that we earn wisdom, create joy, forge friendships, discover happiness, find love, and do purposeful work.” ― Eric Greitens, Resilience
29. “Resilience is based on compassion for ourselves as well as compassion for others.” ― Sharon Salzberg
30. “When we learn how to become resilient, we learn how to embrace the beautifully broad spectrum of the human experience.” ― Jaeda Dewalt
31. “I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance. Never settle for the path of least resistance” ― Lee Ann Womack, I Hope You Dance
32. “Successful people demonstrate their resilience through their dedication to making progress every day, even if that progress is marginal.” ― Jonathan Mills, How to Be Successful in Business and in Life
33. "Resilience isn't a single skill. It's a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive." ― Jean Chatzky
34. “Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying 'I will try again tomorrow'.” ― Mary Anne Radmacher
35. "When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realize that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives." A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
36. “No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That's the only way to keep the roads clear.” ― Greg Kincaid
37. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
38. "Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up." ― Mary Holloway
39. "Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work though difficult problems." Gever Tulley
40. “The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance.” ― Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper
41. "Life doesn't get easier or more forgiving; we get stronger and more resilient." Dr. Steve Maraboli
42. "A good school teaches you resilience - that ability to bounce back." Kate Reardon
43. “Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.” ― Gever Tulley
44. “It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment.” ― Bram Stoker, Dracula
45. "Human beings have enormous resilience." Muhammad Yunus
46. “As much as talent counts, effort counts twice.” ― Angela Duckworth
47. “If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces." ― Shane Koyczan
48. “No one escapes pain, fear, and suffering. Yet from pain can come wisdom, from fear can come courage, from suffering can come strength - if we have the virtue of resilience.” ― Eric Greitens, Resilience
49. “My barn having burned down, I can now see the moon.” ― Mizuta Masahide
50. "She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.” ― Elizabeth Edwards
51. “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.” ― Angela Duckworth
52. “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” ― Nelson Mandela
53. “It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop.” ― Dieter F. Uchtdorf
54. “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” ― Helen Keller
55. “The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat.” ― Woodrow Wilson
56. “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” ― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
57. “Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.” ― Henry Ward Beecher“
58. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life.” ― J.K. Rowling
59. “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good.” ― Elizabeth Edwards
60. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” ― Margaret Thatcher
61. “A good half of the art of living is resilience.” ― Alain de Botton
62. “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” ― Robert Jordan, The Fires of Heaven
63. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” ― Oprah Winfrey
64. “You must bear losses like a soldier, the voice told me, bravely and without complaint, and just when the day seems lost, grab your shield for another stand, another thrust forward. That is the juncture that separates heroes from the merely strong.” ― Margaret George, The Memoirs of Cleopatra
65. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” ― Maya Angelou
66. “Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on.” ― Les Brown
67. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” ― Thomas Edison
68. “On the other side of a storm is the strength that comes from having navigated through it. Raise your sail and begin.” ― Gregory S. Williams
69. "I'm inspired by people that are marginal. I'm excited by their resilience. " - Mira Nair
70. “Grief and resilience live together.” ― Michelle Obama, Becoming
71. "The moment we believe that success is determined by an ingrained level of ability as opposed to resilience and hard work, we will be brittle in the face of adversity." Joshua Waitzkin
72. "We will either find a way, or make one." Anibal Barca
73. "Part of resilience is deciding to make yourself miserable over something that matters, or deciding to make yourself miserable over something that doesn't matter." Elizabeth Edwards
74. “Like tiny seeds with potent power to push through tough ground and become mighty trees, we hold innate reserves of unimaginable strength. We are resilient.” ― Catherine DeVrye, The Gift of Nature
75. “No matter how bleak or menacing a situation may appear, it does not entirely own us. It can't take away our freedom to respond, our power to take action.” ― Ryder Carroll
76. “Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, ‘press on’ has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race.” —Calvin Coolidge
77. “Don’t be discouraged. It’s often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.” —Author Unknown
78. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” —Thomas Edison
79. “The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.” —Henry Ward Beecher
80. “If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again.” —Flavia Weedn
81. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” —Vince Lombardi Jr.
82. “Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” —Charles F. Kettering
83. “Some lean back. But those who lean forward are poised to cross the finish line, first!” —T.F. Hodge
84. “Though you may hear me holler, and you may see me cry — I’ll be dogged, sweet baby if you gonna see me die.” —Langston Hughes
85. “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.” —Abraham Lincoln
86. “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” —John Quincy Adams
87. “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” —Walter Elliot
88. “The difference between the difficult and the impossible is that the impossible takes a little longer time.” —Lady Aberdeen
89. “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.” —A.A. Milne
90. “Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.” —Louis Pasteur
91. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” —Albert Einstein
92. “The greatest oak was once a little nut who held its ground.” —Anonymous
93. “In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins- not through strength but by perseverance.” —H. Jackson Brown
94. “How long should you try? UNTIL!” —Jim Rohn
95. “A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn.” —Helen Keller
96. “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” —Randy Pausch
97. “Sometimes you must cross a bridge and other times you need to burn it. But, always keep building one and never lose your faith in life.” —Dodinsky
98. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” —Nelson Mandela
99. “Failure is often that early morning hour of darkness which precedes the dawning of the day of success.” —Leigh Mitchell Hodges
100. “Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.” —Douglas MacArthur
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Sofia Stewart is a writer who covers astrology, spirituality, love and relationship topics.