In the face of adversity, few qualities are as vital as resilience and endurance. These twin pillars of strength help us persevere through life’s toughest challenges, reminding us that setbacks are not the end but rather opportunities to grow. Whether you’re facing a personal setback or a professional challenge, the words of those who have walked similar paths before us can offer comfort and inspiration.
These quotes about resilience and endurance capture the essence of this inner fortitude and can give you the courage needed to keep going when the path seems uncertain. My Manifest Your Next Chapter retreat guests all have the opportunity to walk a section of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, an experience that can reveal exactly how resilient they are, or aren’t.
If you’re seeking motivation to push through a difficult time, these powerful words can serve as a guiding light, helping you overcome life’s obstacles with determination.
Resilience and endurance are the quiet forces that carry us through life’s toughest moments, reminding us of our inner strength when the road gets rough. Quotes about resilience and endurance encapsulate the wisdom and courage needed to keep going, providing powerful reminders that even in the darkest times, we have the capacity to persevere and emerge stronger.
- “It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop.” – Dieter F. Uchtdorf
- “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” – Nelson Mandela
- “The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.” – Napoleon Hill
- “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
- “This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.” – Winston Churchill
- “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” ― Robert Jordan,
- “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
- “Out of suffering comes the serious mind; out of salvation, the grateful heart; out of endurance, fortitude; out of deliverance faith. Patient endurance attends to all things.” – Teresa d’Avila
- “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” – Ambrose Redmoon
- “Don’t despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don’t – surrender to events with hope.” – Alain de Botton
- “It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous – even death is terrible only if we fear it.” – Epictetus
- “No matter how much falls on us, we keep ploughing ahead. That’s the only way to keep the roads clear.” ― Greg Kincaid
- “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
- “Each struggle, each defeat, sharpens your skills and strengths, your courage and your endurance, your ability and your confidence.” – Og Mandino
- “Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.” ― Gever Tulley
- “It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop.” ― Dieter F. Uchtdorf
- “Integrity is built by defeating the temptation to be dishonest; humility grows when we refuse to be prideful; and endurance develops every time you reject the temptation to give up.” – Rick Warren
- “If you really want to be great at something, you have to truly care about it. If you want to be great in a particular area, you have to obsess over it. A lot of people say they want to be great, but they’re not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness.” – Kobe Bryant
- “Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life.” ― J.K. Rowling
- “She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.” ― Elizabeth Edwards
- “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” – Khalil Gibran
- “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
- “Courage isn’t having the strength to go on, it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
- “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
- “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
- “The extent of the struggle determines the extent of the growth. The obstacle is an advantage, not adversity. The enemy is any perception that prevents us from seeing this.” – Ryan Holiday
- “The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat.” ― Woodrow Wilson
- “It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks.” ― Bob Richards
- “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” – Christopher Reeve
- “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” ― Confucius
- “Forget mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you are going to do right now, and do it. Today is your lucky day.” ― Will Durant
- “The most important thing is to keep going. The second most important thing is to choose the right direction.” – Maxime Lagacé
- “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” ― Helen Keller
- “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” ― Winston Churchill
- “When we learn how to become resilient, we learn how to embrace the beautifully broad spectrum of the human experience.” ― Jaeda Dewalt
- “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
- “We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.” ― Stephen Covey
- “You don’t need to build confidence to achieve challenging goals. You build confidence through achieving challenging goals. Confidence is more the result of progress than the cause of it.” – Adam Grant
- “Resilience is based on compassion for ourselves as well as compassion for others.” ― Sharon Salzberg
- “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
- “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” ― Thomas Edison
- “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
- “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
- “Successful people demonstrate their resilience through their dedication to making progress every day, even if that progress is marginal.” ― Jonathan Mills
- “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
- “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” ― Og Mandino
- “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou
- “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. 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
- “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
- “Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up.” ― Mary Holloway
Quotes can make excellent journal prompts, I often use the quotes I find most meaningful as inspiration, for example:
This quote by Charles Darwin, “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” can be used to formulate this prompt: How do you typically respond to change or unexpected challenges? Reflect on a recent transition or disruption in your life and explore how adapting to the change helped—or could have helped—you build resilience.
or
This quote from Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” could inspire this prompt: Identify a struggle you’ve faced that ultimately made you stronger. How did enduring this hardship contribute to your personal growth? Write about the specific strengths you developed as a result.
or
Nelson Mandela’s words, “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” can be used to create this prompt: Consider a time when you felt defeated but chose to keep going. What motivated you to get back up? How does this experience shape the way you view success and resilience today? How can you apply this perspective to current challenges in your life?
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I hope these resilience and endurance quotes and prompts, will help you to tap into your inner strength, build greater resilience, and face life’s challenges with renewed confidence and determination.