John Burroughs Quotes

When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

I think it's an amazing quality to be able to roll with the punches and not be totally ruined as a person because life's been rough for you. That's a really admirable way to go through your life.

Any personal crisis - you have to use it to get stronger.

It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated... it is finished when it surrenders.

The person who lets them get you down, any kind of problem, is the person that fades out. So you've got to be strong enough; you don't like it, but you've got to be strong enough to accept what's going on and that you're going to fight it or whatever it takes to overcome this matter. That's the way I feel.

'That which does not kill me makes me stronger' is not a law of the universe. What it can be, if we so choose, is a resolution.

I don't think that you can let the storms of life overwhelm you. When you do that, you are no better than the craziness that caused you to be under attack.

The struggle goes on. The victory is in the struggle, for me. And I accepted that a long time ago.

But I believe we must not allow feelings of defeat to take root in our hearts.

As a writer, I have this compulsion to take characters who appear formidable and bombard them with adversity until they crumble. What's interesting is watching them rise again, and seeing how they've changed and grown, if indeed they have.

I am a sweet old softy, but it took toughness to get through what I went through.

You don't have to be a scared person. I've had so many tragedies. I've managed to withstand things that you may think you cannot tolerate. But I have the strength.

Strength doesn't mean an absence of pain.

I've never had one of those middle of the nights when I go, 'Why me?' or 'I don't know if I can keep fighting like this.' No. Those thoughts don't even enter my mind.

Being knee-deep in sadness or suffering and refusing to look down - to me, that represents something more powerful than someone who's never gone through difficulty.

If it was up to me, I wouldn't lose at all, but when it happens, that's when you have to show your real strength.

Sometimes things don't go exactly as you'd wish. You have to be mentally strong to overcome those moments.

Disappointment builds character and strength.

Successful people are able to rise above crises by relaxing no matter what the external situation. Their belief in themselves, the strength of their self-image is impenetrable armor, which protects them against shattering events.

If you can survive disappointment, nothing can beat you

Struggling is mandatory. Suffering is optional.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character; it becomes lack of power to act with courage proportionate to danger. All this must lead to the destruction of our intellectual life unless the danger summons up strong personalities able to fill the lukewarm and discouraged with new strength and resolution.

That is the challenge Companion. To take what has happened to you and learn from it. Nothing is quite so destructive as pity, especially self-pity. No event in life is so terrible that one cannot rise above it.

My own father had always said the measure of a man wasn't how many times or how hard he got knocked down, but how fast he got back up. I made a pledge to myself that I would get up and emerge from this debacle better for having gone through it. I would live up to the expectation I had for myself. I would be the kind of man I wanted to be.

The difference between the real winners is how long they take to feel sorry for themselves. My winners feel it... but they come back up and say 'hit me again.'