He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.
Interpretation
Enduring hardships builds strength and character in individuals.
This quote suggests that experiencing difficulties and challenges is essential for personal growth and the development of virtues such as courage and resilience. It implies that the qualities we admire in human nature, such as bravery and tenacity, often thrive in the presence of struggles and adversities, rather than in ease and comfort.
In practice
In a motivational speech about overcoming challenges, this quote can highlight the importance of resilience.
Nothing else matters much...not wealth, nor learning, nor even health...without this gift: the spiritual capacity to keep zest in living. This is the creed of creeds, the final deposit and distillation of all important faiths: that you should be able to believe in life.
No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it, by vigorously willing to have it ... Peace is a consciousness of springs too deep for earthly droughts to dry up. Peace is the gift not of volitional struggle but of spiritual hospitality.
I renounce war for its consequences, for the lies it lives on and propagates, for the undying hatred it arouses, for the dictatorships it puts in place of democracy, for the starvation that stalks after it. I renounce war, and never again, directly or indirectly, will I sanction or support another.
He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.
No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
Nothing in this world is more inspiring than a soul up against crippling circumstances who carries it off with courage and faith and undefeated character-nothing! See Light From Many Lamps, edited by L. E. Watson, article by H. E. Fosdick, pp. 93-94 re: a serious cripple who succeeded.
Remember, a dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream.
From here on out, there's just reality. I think that's what maturity is: a stoic response to endless reality. But then, what do I know?
Excellence is the eternal quest. We achieve it by living up to our highest intellectual standards and our finest moral intuitions. In seeking excellence, take life seriously-but never yourself!
For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences.
Yield not thy neck_x000D_ _x000D_ To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind_x000D_ _x000D_ Still ride in triumph over all mischance._x000D_ _x000D_ In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands_x000D_ _x000D_ that work on us.
There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life.
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