Kings have long arms, but misfortune longer; let none think themselves out of reach.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

When the world pushes you to your knees, you’re in the perfect position to pray.

But we cannot simply sit and stare at our wounds forever.

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.

So it is more useful to watch a man in time of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask it torn off, reality remains.

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast.