Firestar Queen Goddessmember of the fuba's blog: "wisdom"

I got in trouble with the police, and that was a rude awakening. That was it. I'd seen the bottom of the pit, and it was time to scrape myself out of it. ~ Bryan Adams ~ It takes a real storm in the average person's life to make him realize how much worrying he has done over the squalls. ~ Heartland Advisor ~ The reward of suffering is experience. ~ Aeschylus ~ I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship. ~ Louisa May Alcott ~ Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us--and those around us -- more effectively. Look for the learning. ~ Eric Allenbaugh ~ You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. ~ Barbara De Angelis ~ When you come to a roadblock, take a detour. ~ Mary Kay Ash ~ Every silver lining has a cloud. ~ Avon ~ When walking through the "valley of shadows," remember, a shadow is cast by a Light. ~ H.K. Barclay ~ Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise. ~ Henry Ward Beecher ~ It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top. ~ Arnold Bennet ~ It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. ~ Taylor Benson ~ They that sow in tears shall reap joy. [Psalms 126:5] ~ Bible ~ Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist -- it reduces him to his fighting weight. ~ Josh Billings ~ If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. ~ Anne Bradstreet ~ Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness --a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster-children into strength and athletic proportion. ~ William C. Bryant ~ Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of character but strengthen it. Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before. ~ James Buckham ~ Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture. ~ Mario Burata ~ Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains ~ Emilie Cady ~ Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity. ~ Thomas Carlyle ~ No pressure, no diamonds. ~ Mary Case ~ Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. ~ M Kathleen Casey ~ Do not free the camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton ~ And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow. ~ Jerry Chin ~ What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise. ~ Kitty O'neill Collins ~ I bring to my life a certain amount of mess. ~ Francis Ford Coppola ~ If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater the effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders -- what would you tell him to do? I don't know. What could he do? What would you tell him? To shrug. ~ Francisco D'Anconia ~ In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present. ~ Danny Devito ~ A wounded deer leaps the highest. ~ Emily Dickinson ~ People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles. ~ Frank Herbert, Dune ~ Gray skies are just clouds passing over. ~ Duke Ellington ~ A man is a god in ruins. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatest of the soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported without the latter. ~ Henry Fielding ~ Every hardship; every joy; every temptation is a challenge of the spirit; that the human soul may prove itself. The great chain of necessity wherewith we are bound has divine significance; and nothing happens which has not some service in working out the sublime destiny of the human soul. ~ Elias A. Ford ~ What is to give light must endure the burning. ~ Viktor E. Frankl ~ Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward. ~ Robert C. Gallagher ~ Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you. ~ Gesser ~ One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night. ~ Kahlil Gibran ~ Nothing splendid was ever created in cold blood. Heat is required to forge anything. Every great accomplishment is the story of a flaming heart. ~ Arnold H. Glasgow ~ We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds. ~ Hanmer Parsons Grant ~ Some people bear three kinds of trouble -- the ones they've had, the ones they have, and the ones they expect to have. ~ Edward Everett Hale ~ Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, "Shake well before using." That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable. ~ Vance Havner ~ It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish. ~ Heraclitus ~ In my room as a kid... I'd play a fighter and get knocked to the floor and come back to win. ~ Dustin Hoffman ~ Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant. ~ Horace ~ The harder you fall, the higher you bounce. ~ Doug Horton ~ Abuse a man unjustly, and you will make friends for him. ~ Edgar Watson Howe ~ I used to hurt so badly that I'd ask God why, what have I done to deserve any of this? I feel now He was preparing me for this, for the future. That's the way I see it. ~ Janet Jackson ~ If the career you have chosen has some unexpected inconvenience, console yourself by reflecting that no career is without them. ~ Johnson ~ Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then. ~ Samuel Johnson ~ Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be. ~ Charles "Tremendous" Jones ~ He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity ~ Ben Jonson ~ Had there been no difficulties and no thorns in the way, then man would have been in his primitive state and no progress made in civilization and mental culture. ~ Anandabai Joshee ~ Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat. ~ Ryszard Kapuscinski ~ Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them? ~ Rose F. Kennedy ~ If you can keep your head about you when all about you are losing theirs, its just possible you haven't grasped the situation. ~ Jean Kerr ~ Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth. ~ Soren Kierkegaard ~ Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer. ~ Ann Landers ~ There could be no honor in a sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat. ~ Thomas E. Lawrence ~ Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with. ~ Robert Leighton ~ In terms of the game theory, we might say the universe is so constituted as to maximize play. The best games are not those in which all goes smoothly and steadily toward a certain conclusion, but those in which the outcome is always in doubt. Similarly, the geometry of life is designed to keep us at the point of maximum tension between certainty and uncertainty, order and chaos. Every important call is a close one. We survive and evolve by the skin of our teeth. We really wouldn't want it any other way. ~ George Leonard ~ Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle. ~ James Russell Lowell ~ Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change. ~ Malcolm X ~ There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time. ~ Og Mandino ~ You never know what events are going to transpire to get you home. ~ Apollo 13 Movie ~ Only entropy comes easy. ~ Lewis Mumford ~ A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind. ~ John Neal ~ The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire. ~ Richard M. Nixon ~ Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. ~ Leroy "Satchel" Paige ~ I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death. ~ Thomas Paine ~ I would never have amounted to anything were it not for adversity. I was forced to come up the hard way. ~ J. C. (James Cash) Penney ~ The racism, the sexism, I never let it be my problem, it's their problem. If I see a door comin' my way, I'm knockin' it down. And if I can't knock down the door, I'm sliding through the window. I'll never let it stop me from what I wanna do. ~ Rosie Perez ~ Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great. ~ Pliny The Elder ~ The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach. ~ Laurens Van du Post ~ The seaman tells stories of winds, the ploughman of bulls; the soldier details his wounds, the shepherd his sheep. ~ Sextus Propertius ~ A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials. ~ Chinese Proverb ~ Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. ~ Maori Proverb ~ Stumbling is not falling. ~ Portuguese Proverb ~ Any port in a storm. ~ Scottish Proverb ~ Do you think that you shall enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed before you? ~ Qur'an ~ All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today. ~ Ralph Ransom ~ I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door -- or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present. ~ Joan Rivers ~ If we study the lives of great men and women carefully and unemotionally we find that, invariably, greatness was developed, tested and revealed through the darker periods of their lives. One of the largest tributaries of the RIVER OF GREATNESS is always the STREAM OF ADVERSITY. ~ Cavett Robert ~ In a dark time, the eye begins to see. ~ Theodore Roethke ~ Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley. ~ James Rogers ~ People are like stained -- glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within ~ Elizabeth Kubler Ross ~ Adversity is a great teacher, but this teacher makes us pay dearly for its instruction; and often the profit we derive, is not worth the price we paid. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau ~ When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it. ~ Rosalind Russell ~ A man is insensible to the relish of prosperity until he has tasted adversity. ~ Saadi ~ When it gets dark enough you can see the stars. ~ Lee Salk ~ Trouble shared is trouble halved. ~ Dorothy L. Sayers ~ It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest. ~ Greek Saying ~ You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity. ~ Walt Schmidt ~ Every burden is a blessing. ~ Robert H. Schuller ~ The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is. ~ Charles M. Schwab ~ One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity. ~ Albert Schweitzer ~ The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character. ~ Sir Walter Scott ~ It's a matter of ABC: When we encounter ADVERSITY, we react by thinking about it. Our thoughts rapidly congeal into BELIEFS. These beliefs may become so habitual we don't even realize we have them unless we stop to focus on them. And they don't just sit there idly; they have CONSEQUENCES. The beliefs are the direct cause of what we feel and what we do next. They can spell the difference between dejection and giving up, on the one hand, and well-being and constructive action on the other. The first step is to see the connection between adversity, belief, and consequence. The second step is to see how the ABCs operate every day in your own life. ~ Martin E. P. Seligman ~ Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men. ~ Seneca ~ The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity. ~ Seneca ~ Things were bad but now they are OK. ~ Harold J. Seymour ~ One often learns more from ten days of agony than from ten years of contentment. ~ Merle Shain ~ Through tattered clothes, small vices do appear. Robes and furred gowns hide all. ~ William Shakespeare ~ If you want to win anything -- a race, your self, your life -- you have to go a little berserk. ~ George Sheehan ~ For gold is tried in the fire and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity. ~ Sirach ~ Many miles away there's a shadow on the door of a cottage on the Shore of a dark Scottish lake. ~ Sting ~ Life has meaning only in the struggle. Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the Gods. So let us celebrate the struggle! ~ Swahili Warrior Song ~ Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, grow, grow. ~ The Talmud ~ If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are? ~ Source Unknown ~ If your knees are knocking, kneel on them. ~ Source Unknown ~ The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them ~ Source Unknown ~ The stars are constantly shining, but often we do not see them until the dark hours. ~ Source Unknown ~ Two frogs fell into a bowl of cream. One didn't panic, he relaxed and drowned. The other kicked and struggled so much that the cream turned to butter and he walked out. ~ Source Unknown ~ We need tough days to drive us to our knees. ~ Source Unknown ~ I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time. ~ Sam Walton ~ Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records. ~ William A. Ward ~ Humanity either makes, or breeds, or tolerates all its afflictions. ~ H.G. Wells ~ The path of least resistance is the path of the loser. ~ Phil Weltman ~ A reasonable amount o fleas is good for a dog -- keeps him from brooding over being a dog, maybe. ~ Edward Noyes Westcott ~ If I traveled to the end of the rainbow as Dame Fortune did intend, Murphy would be there to tell me the pot's at the other end. ~ Bert Whitney ~ It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows by like a song. But the man worth while is the one who can smile, when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is troubled, And it always comes with the years. And the smiles that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears. ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox ~ Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it. ~ Oprah Winfrey ~ Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together. ~ Carl Zwanzig ~