adversity and achievement Quotes

When I saw I was under attack from all sides, I knew I was on the right track.

Great necessity elevates man, petty necessity casts him down

For every level there’s another Devil.

The best work usually meets the strongest opposition.

The way to bliss lies not on beds of down, And he that had no cross deserves no crown.

Great men have big failures.

I do strongly feel that among the greatest pieces of luck for high achievement is ordeal. Certain great artists can make out without it, Titian and others, but mostly you need ordeal. My idea is this: the artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business: Beethoven's deafness, Goya's deafness, Milton's blindness, that kind of thing.