The vast majority of people have gone through some circumstances in our lives that have been hard and in which we had to have resilience. Resilience is that act of resistance in the face of adverse life situations, but which also allows us to develop the ability to get up and emerge stronger from our problems. This concept has been receiving a lot of interest in recent years as a psychological tool to face the challenging circumstances the world lives in today. For that reason, we decided to compile a series of resilience quotes from famous and notable people who have known how to overcome their problems and learn from them, thanks to our human psyche’s capacity.
These resilience quotes will surely motivate you to overcome the obstacles that may arise in your life and teach you how to be mentally strong every day.
10 Fundamental Concepts of Resilience
Use this list as a guide to better understanding the fundamentals of the quotes below.
- Introspection: It’s the ability to know yourself and understand your relationship with the outside world.
- Motivation: It consists of knowing how to give meaning to your life by creating your existential projects.
- Emotional intelligence: It consists of intelligently facing and managing your negative emotions.
- Emotional autonomy: Knowing how to set emotional boundaries between yourself and your problems without isolating or ignoring them.
- Self-confidence: Self-esteem, initiative, and responsibility to achieve personal independence.
- Ability to relate: The ability to balance one’s need for affection with the attitude of helping others.
- Optimism: It’s the ability to solve problems creatively.
- Sense of humor: It’s the ability to disempower problems through a change in attitude.
- Commitment: The ability to commit to values and help others.
- Morality and ethics: Maintaining coherence and unity between what you say and what you do, based on solid principles.
17 Resilience Quotes
Accept problems with courage
“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, self-help author
In this quote, Napoleon Hill explains with a metaphor how the strongest people in society are; those who accept that life can be very hard but still go out and “embrace” problems because they’re part of life.
“The last of human freedoms is one’s ability to choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances.”
Viktor Frankl, psychiatrist, and author
This phrase by Victor Frankl explains that regardless of the problems that may arise, you always have the option to choose your attitude towards them, choose to feel defeated, or decide to feel stronger than your problems.
Accept your emotions and move on
“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
Audre Lorde, writer, and civil rights activist
This motivational phrase reflects the attitude of surrender that people can have when they have a purpose that guides them in life, to the point of ignoring their fears.
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”
Mark Twain, writer, humorist, and entrepreneur
In a short and precise sentence, Mark Twain defines brave people as those who, even though they’re afraid, can overcome that fear, dominate it and do what they know they must do.
Have constancy and perseverance
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Confucius, ancient Chinese philosopher
The Great Master Confucius expresses with total clarity what should be the attitude of any person who aspires to achieve success (glory); try repeating this resilience quote repeatedly and never give up.
Love for oneself
“Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Don’t be concerned about whether people are watching you or criticizing you. The chances are that they aren’t paying any attention to you. It’s your attention to yourself that is so stultifying. But you have to disregard yourself as completely as possible. If you fail the first time then you’ll just have to try harder the second time. After all, there’s no real reason why you should fail. Just stop thinking about yourself.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, politician, diplomat, and activist
This quote from Elanor Roosevelt is about the fundamentals of emotional autonomy and self-confidence. What stops you from reaching your goals is that you give too much importance to your environment without paying enough attention to your ability to achieve success.
Commit to a cause or project
“This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.”
Winston Churchill, politician, army officer, and writer
The British Prime Minister had to face extraordinarily harsh circumstances during the Second World War. In this sentence, Churchill calls on the nation to commit to the cause of freedom and survival and to prepare for anything. It’s also a call to England’s morale.
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights activist
A phrase loaded with great motivation but that simultaneously indicates what it means to be committed to a common cause. No matter what obstacle you’ve in front of you, any effort produces results, no matter how small it may seem. One of the most powerful resilience quotes you can find.
Strength and hope
“When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.”
Peter Marshall, game show host, TV and radio personality, singer, and actor
This resilience quote from Peter Marshall reminds us that it’s in the most challenging moments in life when people have the opportunity to improve and bring out the best things in themselves.
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.”
Thomas A. Edison, inventor, and businessman
A powerful phrase that tells you directly that no matter how difficult a calamity may seem, you can always find a solution as long as you keep looking for it.
Humor and self-knowledge
“Women are like teabags. We don’t know our true strength until we are in hot water!”
Eleanor Roosevelt, politician, diplomat, and activist
With a bit of humor – which also reaffirms the sentence’s content – Eleanor Roosevelt takes it for granted that all women have great inner potential that often only manifests itself under challenging circumstances.
“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”
Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist
In this tremendous introspective phrase, the great Einstein implies that a good part of our problems only exists in our minds and that a change in the way you see and face issues is the key to solving them.
Adapt according to circumstances
“You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend. “
Bruce Lee, martial artist, and actor
This famous quote from Bruce Lee represents the whole foundation of his life and his martial philosophy and indicates a truth as clear as water: change is something inherent in nature, and you’ve to adapt and flow with it to survive and move on. One of the most practical resilience quotes for your day-to-day.
“I knew there was a way out. I knew there was another kind of life because I had read about it. I knew there were other places, and there was another way of being.”
Oprah Winfrey, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist
Oprah Winfrey talks about the importance of maintaining a positive mental attitude and an open mind to other possibilities to change. If you feel that you aren’t making progress on a specific problem, change your approach and find an alternative solution.
The importance of relationships
“Nourishing relationships is the single most universally agreed-upon feature of the good life.”
Daniel Goleman, writer
Although many people believe that happiness is in money and fame, Daniel Goleman reminds us where true happiness lies; how would you feel if you had all the money in the world but were utterly alone?
“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.”
J.K. Rowling, writer
The author of the Harry Potter novels also reminds us that maintaining solid interpersonal relationships lies in our strength as the social beings we are; a family, a community, or even a well-united and organized country will always be stronger under any circumstance.
The mind is the beginning and the end of everything
“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, ancient philosopher, teacher of Roman Stoicism
We’ll close this list of resilience quotes with a thought from one notable exponent of Stoic thinking, which has a lot to do with resilience. You can’t prevent things from happening, although to some extent, you can avoid them. No situation in life is good or bad, it’s just a situation.
It’s your attitude to life that will make it good or bad for you. Change your perspective and change your life.
