Paul Theroux Quotes

In times of adversity and change, we really discover who we are and what we're made of.

I really believe in the old expression that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. It's through adversity that you find the strength you never knew you had.

Everything's the same; I'm living with cancer and it's not going to stop me. But until you really test yourself and challenge yourself, I don't think you quite know.

The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.

What matters most is how you respond to your heartbreaks and your disappointments and your fears. What matters most is who you become in response to them.

My main inspirations are the people around me, heartbreaks, frustration and everything that makes you feel stronger than you should.

Bottom line is, even if you see 'em coming, you're not ready for the big moments. No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.

The process of growth is, it seems, the art of falling down. Growth is measured by the gentleness and awareness with which we once again pick ourselves up, the lightness with which we dust ourselves off, the openness with which we continue and take the next unknown step, beyond our edge, beyond our holding, into the remarkable mystery of being.

Adversity is an opportunity for self-discovery.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

Only by contending with challenges that seem to be beyond your strength to handle at the moment you can grow more surely toward the stars.

Revelations come when you're in the thick of it, pitting yourself up against something larger than yourself.

He knows not his own strength that has not met adversity.

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.

Our ability to handle life's challenges is a measure of our strength of character.

Don't wish me happiness - I don't expect to be happy it's gotten beyond that, somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor - I will need them all.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

When you see how you react when you suffer that's when you know what you are made of.

What is hard to remember when you're in the middle of it is that when you get through to the other side, you always walk away with a gift. If you can stand in there and not walk away from it, you get transformed by it.

He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.

We must accept life for what it actually is - a challenge to our quality without which we should never know of what stuff we are made, or grow to our full stature.

The mark of the man is how he responds to situations. You're not going to avoid tough times. We're all over the barrel some of the time. What are you going to do about it?

The hardest things in my life have made me who I am.

I feel like I learned that I am so much stronger than I ever thought I was, not just emotionally, but physically.

So once you hit like that place, where everything is stripped from you, everything is taken from you, you really discover who you really are. I discovered that I'm a real hero, that I can deal with that situation, that I can rise up to the challenge.