17 resilience quotes: on getting back up after failure and loss

Resilience is the ability to keep going through hard times and to recover after them. It is something people can build over time, and a lot of it comes down to how we think about the difficulties we face.

Words from other people can help with that. When you are struggling, a few lines from someone who has been through something similar can give you a new way to look at your situation, or the encouragement to keep going. Reading quotes like these, and coming back to them, is a simple way to stay motivated when things are hard. The quotes about resilience below are grouped by theme, so you can find the ones that fit what you are dealing with.

Quotes about resilience and getting back up after failure

1. "So rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life." — J.K. Rowling, Harvard commencement address, 2008

2. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." — Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World

3. "I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed." — Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery

4. "It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up." — Vince Lombardi

5. "It ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!" — Rocky Balboa, Rocky Balboa (2006)

Quotes about resilience in hard times

6. "When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about." — Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

7. "The best way out is always through." — Robert Frost, "A Servant to Servants"

8. "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." — Helen Keller, Optimism

9. "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places." — Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Resilience quotes about inner strength

10. "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." — Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

11. "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." — Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter

12. "When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." — Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

13. "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'" — Mary Anne Radmacher

14. "You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies, / You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I'll rise." — Maya Angelou, "Still I Rise"

Quotes about resilience and growth through hardship

15. "What does not kill me makes me stronger." — Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

16. "In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer." — Albert Camus, "Return to Tipasa"

17. "The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths." — Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Closing

Keep the two or three that spoke to you somewhere you will see them again. Reading about resilience can give you a lift, and building it takes regular practice. That is what RiseGuide is for: short daily lessons based on expert insights on mindset and communication.

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