adversity

Those who fume at their
problems become their victims.

David Seabury

  

There may be difficulty at the moment, but I will not lose the Virtue that
I possess.  It is when the ice and snow are on them that we see the strength
of the cypress and the pine.  I am grateful for this trouble around me,
because it gives me an opportunity to realize how fortunate I am.

Chuang-tse

     
Whenever you hear anyone talking about a cultural or even
about a human problem, you should never forget to inquire
who the speaker really is.  The more general the problem,
the more the person will smuggle his or her own personal
psychology into the account he or she gives of it.

Carl Jung
   

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your
house is on fire, then you got a problem.
Everything else is inconvenience.

Robert Fulghum

   
If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round.
Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't embrace trouble;
that's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a
friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

  

We say that we cannot bear our troubles but when we get to them we bear them.

Ning Lao T'ai-t'ai

    
    

   

Trouble is a part of your life, and if you don't share it, you don't
give the person who loves you enough chance to love you enough.

Dinah Shore

   

Our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. When we
face a problem, we may not know
its solution, but we have insight, increasing knowledge, and an inkling of what we are looking for. When we face a mystery, however, we can only stare in wonder and bewilderment,
not knowing what an explanation
would even look like.

Noam Chomsky

    

The problem is not that there are problems.  The problem is expecting
otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.

Theodore Rubin

    

    
In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us.

Rainer Maria Rilke
   

Problems are not problems at all, but results that are dissatisfying.

Jerry Gillies

   
We must seek out problems and convert them to challenges!  We must welcome problems with arms open.  Embrace them because this can well be some of the finest parts of living.  Many older people look back on the years they spent wondering how they would meet the expenses of raising a family, coping with the problems, the illnesses--in some instances the vexations of their children--they look back now and think, "those were the most developmental, the most rewarding, the most wonderful years of my life.  If I could only have recognized it then."
    What they're saying, in effect, is that they should have welcomed problems.  Encountering a steady stream of problems day after day made their lives warm and meaningful.  It gave them confidence.  It helped insure that their later years would be years of serenity.  Welcome problems, reach out for them, charge into them and convert them in your mind immediately to challenges.  The negative way to look at a problem is to think of it as a problem.  Search it out, isolate it as a problem, then in your mind convert it to a challenge, determine the steps that you will need to surmount it just as the pole vaulter needs to first determine steps and then work at it.  Only in this way do you develop the skill, the coordination, the mind, the muscle and the confidence to really get it done.

Joe D. Batten and Leonard C. Hudson
   

adversity

It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved
in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.

John Steinbeck
   

Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution.
If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds.

Norman Vincent Peale

    

A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

Duke Ellington

   

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What a pity human beings can't exchange problems.
Everyone knows exactly how to solve the other person's.

Olin Miller
  

Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them.

Hugh Miller

   

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.

Henry Ward Beecher

  
   
Problems are the price you pay for progress.

Branch Rickey
 

Never cry because you have mountains of problem in your hands
to solve.  Always smile because each problems will someday resolve.

Santosh Kalwar

   

The big question isn't whether you have problems; the
all-important factor is your attitude toward problems.
How you think of the problem is more
important than the problem itself.

Norman Vincent Peale

   

   

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adversity

I could do nothing without my problems; they toughen my mind.  In fact, I tell
my assistants not to bring me their successes for they weaken me, but
rather to bring me their problems, for they strengthen me.

Charles Franklin Kettering
   

There was a time when I thought it was a nuisance to be confronted
with a problem. I tried to get rid of it. I tried to get somebody else to
solve it for me. But that time was long ago. It was a great day in my
life when I discovered the wonderful purpose of problems. Yes,
they have a wonderful purpose.  Some people wish for a life of no
problems, but I would never wish such a life for any of you.  What
I wish for you is the great inner strength to solve your problems
meaningfully and grow. Problems are learning and growing
experiences.  A life without problems would be a barren
existence, without the opportunity for spiritual growth.

Peace Pilgrim

   

It is impressive to see a person who has been battered by life in many
ways, who is torn by a variety of unsolved problems, who may be
alienated from many aspects of the self--but who is still fighting,
still struggling, still striving to find the path to a fulfilling existence,
moved by the wisdom of knowing, "I am more than my problems."

Nathaniel Branden
Self-Esteem Every Day