Your first big trouble can be a bonanza if you live through it. Get through the first trouble, and you'll probably make it through the next one.
Calamity is the test of integrity.
The secret of a leader lies in the tests he has faced over the whole course of his life and the habit of action he develops in meeting those tests.
The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the last generation.
Our trials are tests; our sorrows pave the way for a fuller life when we have earned it.
Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purist ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storms.
The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties.
A diamond is a chunk of coal that made good under pressure.
A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.
It is the surmounting of difficulties that makes heroes.
Men habitually use only a small part of the powers which they possess and which they might use under appropriate circumstances.
It is the north wind that lashes men into Vikings; it is the soft, luscious south wind which lulls them to lotus dreams.
It is grief that develops the powers of the mind.
Unless a man has been kicked around a little, you can't really depend upon him to amount to anything.
Troubles cured you salty as a country ham, smoky to the taste, thick-skinned and tender inside.
If you have to be careful because of oppression and censorship, this pressure produces diamonds.
Adversity is another way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crisis that didn't make me stronger.
It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. ... Great necessities call out great virtues.
Of all the advantages which come to any young man ... poverty is the greatest.
My luck was my father not striking oil... we'd have been rich. I'd never have set out for Hollywood with my camera, and I'd have had a lot less interesting life.
