Home > Work > Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life
141 " It’s all about resilience. Resilience is the virtue that enables people to move through hardship and become better. No one escapes pain, fear, and suffering. Yet from pain can come wisdom, from fear can come courage, from suffering can come strength—if we have the virtue of resilience. "
― Eric Greitens , Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life
142 " In the long run, though, deprivation of purpose is as destructive as deprivation of sleep. "
143 " Steam, water, and ice are made up of the same building blocks, combined in almost the same way, but the environment around them profoundly shapes the form they take. In the same way, the elements of learning are often made up of the same building blocks and are combined in almost the same way. Pain is a part of learning. So is reflection. In some conditions: pain + reflection = progress. We struggle. We reflect. We try again and grow stronger. But at other times: pain + reflection = whining. "
144 " Life’s reality is that we cannot bounce back. We cannot bounce back because we cannot go back in time to the people we used to be. The parent who loses a child never bounces back. The nineteen-year-old marine who sails for war is gone forever, even if he returns. “What’s done cannot be undone,” and some of what life does to us is harsh. "
145 " One of the first definitions you’ll find is this: “capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation, especially if the strain is caused by compressive stresses—called also elastic resilience. "
146 " The Greeks recognized that great people could fail terribly and still be great. Wise people could sometimes be dumb. Courageous people could be cowardly. Honest people could lie, and compassionate people could be cruel. "
147 " Arrogance leads to blindness—and both blindness and arrogance, in time, exact a cost "
148 " Most of us can make ourselves more free through self-mastery. "
149 " Here’s how he explained the Stockdale Paradox: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. "
150 " We’ll measure the worth of our words by how they move us to live well. "
151 " The excellent fail more often than the mediocre. They begin more. They attempt more. They attack more. Mastery lives quietly atop a mountain of mistakes. "
152 " Any nation that draws too great a distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.” We "
153 " The happiness of excellence comes from deep engagement with the world. And when we’re engaged in service to others, we find that this happiness takes on a whole new dimension: meaning. It’s one pleasure to dive for abalone. It’s another pleasure to dive for abalone to feed a hungry family. My grandmother-in-law knits. She’s great at it, and I know that trying to master new patterns and products gives her pleasure. I also know that knitting for a friend in hospice or for her great-grandchildren provides her a deeper satisfaction that comes with doing work that’s meaningful. And that combination—outer service and inner growth—is one of the most beautiful things we can create in a good life. "
154 " At the start of many important endeavors, you’ll often think: How can I do this? I don’t even know enough to begin. It’s a common excuse, and it’s often a mask for cowardice. When we say that we don’t know what to do, it’s often not information we’re lacking, but courage. "
155 " The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” That "
156 " life operates not by a series of rules, but by a set of consequences. "
157 " there is an overwhelming power in boundless compassion and unconditional love. "
158 " ...help turn the pain you experience into the strength, wisdom, and joy you deserve. ...Resilience is the virtue that enables people to move through hardship and become better. No one escapes pain, fear, and suffering. Yet from pain can come wisdom, from fear can come courage, from suffering can come strength - if we have the virtue of resilience. "
159 " Your life has a natural point of aim. It flies in the direction of your habits. "
160 " The question is, where will your joy meet the world’s need? "