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    “[Bruce Lee’s] answer to problems was to turn a stumbling block into a stepping stone. For instance, when he was confined to bed rest for six months because of a back injury, he used that opportunity to compile his training methods and his philosophical thoughts into several volumes.”

    Linda Lee Cadwell, via Striking Thoughts (Page xvii)

      “Confront one of your limitations—one of the obstructions in your path—today. Break beyond it, climb over it, think your way around it. Don’t run from it. It was created for you.”

      Robert Greene, The Daily Laws (Page 24)

        “To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden.”

        Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus, via The Daily Stoic (Page 386)

          “It’s a kind of test, Mary, and it’s the only kind that amounts to anything. When something rotten like this happens, then you have your choice. You start to really be alive, or you start to die. That’s all.”

          James Agee, A Death In The Family, via Sunbeams (Page 150)

            “Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases.”

            Rose of Lima

              “It’s easy to imagine that over there, just a few steps ahead, our problems will disappear. Pessimists, of course, are sure that instead of disappearing, tomorrow will make things worse. The truth is pretty simple: All we do, all we ever do, is trade one set of problems for another. Problems are a feature. They’re the opportunity to see how we can productively move forward. Not to a world with no problems at all, but to a situation with different problems, ones that are worth dancing with.”

              Seth Godin, Blog

                “I’d say, ‘But I’m not happy.’ And [my grandmother] would say, ‘Where is it written that you’re supposed to be happy all the time?’ And I actually think it was the beginning of my spiritual practice—that life is difficult. Then 40 years later, I learned that the buddhists said the same thing, that life is inevitably challenging and how are we going to do it in a way that’s wise and doesn’t complicate it more than it is just by itself?”

                Sylvia Boorstein, via Becoming Wise (Page 218)

                  “While it’s true that someone can impede our actions, they can’t impede our intentions and our attitudes, which have the power of being conditional and adaptable. For the mind adapts and converts any obstacle to its action into a means of achieving it. That which is an impediment to action is turned to advance action. The obstacle on the path becomes the way.”

                  Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, The Daily Stoic (Page 195)

                    “The first rule of holes, goes the adage, is that ‘if you find yourself in a hold, stop digging.’ This might be the most violated piece of commonsense wisdom in the world. Because what most of us do when something happens, goes wrong, or is inflicted on us is make it worse—first, by getting angry or feeling aggrieved, and next, by flailing around before we have much in the way of a plan. Today, give yourself the most simple and doable of tasks: just don’t make stuff worse.”

                    Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 177)

                      “It had done me good to be somewhat parched by the heat and drenched by the rain of life.”

                      Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, via Sunbeams (Page 109)

                        “But what is philosophy? Doesn’t it simply mean preparing ourselves for what may come? Don’t you understand that really amounts to saying that if I would so prepare myself to endure, then let anything happen that will? Otherwise, it would be like the boxer exiting the ring because he took some punches. Actually, you can leave the boxing ring without consequence, but what advantage would come from abandoning the pursuit of wisdom? So, what should each of us say to every trial we face? This is what I’ve trained for, for this my discipline!”

                        Epictetus, Discourses, via The Daily Stoic (Page 155)

                          “You will not grow if you sit in a beautiful flower garden, but you will grow if you are sick, if you are in pain, if you experience losses, and if you do not put your head in the sand, but take the pain and learn to accept it, not as a curse or punishment but as a gift to you with a very, very specific purpose.”

                          Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, via Sunbeams (Page 91)