We offer the following quotations as potential sources of inspiration and food-for-thought. If you have a quote on some aspect of resilience that you would like to share with others, please let us know via our Contact Us form.
- Invest in Tools
If we accept the wisdom … and the evidence … that our relationships are among our most valuable tools for sustaining health and happiness, then choosing to invest time and energy in them today becomes vitally important.
—Robert Waldinger, Marc Schultz, The Good Life (2022) - Success
Success isn’t about conquering something. It’s being happy with who you are.
—Britney Spears - Flexibility Like Bamboo
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 - Change Orientation
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
—Rumi - Root Structure
Make your root structure around real people.
—Arthur Brooks, Strength to Strength - Encapsulation of Faith
Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.
—Hebrews 11:1 - Resilient Teams
Resilient teams are just as important to businesses as resilient individuals, but while individual resilience is built independently, team resiliency must be carefully cultivated by leadership.
–Harvard Business Review (July 2019) - All Our Wisdom
All our wisdom is stored in the trees.
—Santosh Kalwar - Resilience Skills
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 - Dare to fail …
Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.
—Robert F. Kennedy - Art of Living x ½
A good half of the art of living is resilience.
—Alain de Boston - Courage to Suffer
But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.
—Viktor Frankl - Aligned Worlds
There is an objective “real world” as well as a subjective “inner world” and, if the two do not match, we live a lie.
—Peter Kreeft - Our protectors …
Trees are, and always have been, dear to us. We see in them our protectors. We sense in them the continuity of life. And we find in their steadfastness, our own steadfastness … Trees hold us fast in their embrace.
—Jill Neimark, The Hugging Tree - Courage, Serenity, Insight
Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other.
—The Serenity Prayer (attribution uncertain) - Meaning & Purpose
Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.
—Viktor Frankl - Talent and Effort
As much as talent counts, effort counts twice.
—Angela Duckworth - New Way of Seeing
A new way of seeing combined with a new way of acting is what we need.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - Inventing hope …
Hope is invented every day.
—James Baldwin - Forests & Families
Forests are just like human families.
—Suzanne Simard, The Networked Beauty of Forests (TEDEd, 11/2013)
