Quotes about Struggle

But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for.

One moment it was there, another moment it is gone. One moment we are here, and another moment we have gone. And for this simple moment, how much fuss we make! How much violence, ambition, struggle, conflict, anger, hatred, just for this small moment! Just waiting for the train in a waiting room on a station, and creating so much fuss: fighting, hurting each other, trying to possess, trying to boss, trying to dominate - all that politics. And then the train comes and you are gone forever.

Our struggle to put first things first can be characterized by the contrast between two powerful tools that direct us: the clock and the compass.  The clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities -- what we do with, and how we manage our time.  The compass represents our vision, values, principles, mission, conscience, direction -- what we feel is important and how we lead our lives.  In an effort to close the gap between the clock and the compass in our lives, many of us turn to the field of "time management."

Some believe that just because I am a prophet, I don't struggle with any personal demons. To be human is to struggle with your own personal demons. The difference between me and many others is I have overcome my demons.

Life is a struggle but it beats the alternative.

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and attend them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture, still,
treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

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. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop
your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not
to surrender, that is strength.

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don't want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

If you only try to do the things where you win, then you'll never try to do anything worth doing.

So you think you've found the solution but it's just another illusion. 

"There is two kind of people: winners and losers. Winners just don't give up"

The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.

Transformation of any kind always exacts a holy tussle. The newborn butterfly struggles to open its wings so it can conjure up the strength to fly. So, too, with artists, inventors, mystics, and entrepreneurs.

Allowing the truth of who you are--your spiritual self--to rule your life means you stop the struggle and learn to move with the flow of your life.

You can be all cozy and warm in your house while it rains,but you could still feel so cold.The rain is the least of your problems.Don't let it bother you.

It's not necessary for you to exacerbate your contrast with struggle in order to get it into a higher place. It is not necessary to suffer in order to give birth to desire. But when you have suffered and you have given birth to desire, so what? You've got a desire. Turn your attention to the desire. Think about where you're going and never mind where you've been. Don't spend any more time justifying any of that stuff --- Abraham

Confidence comes from victory, but strength comes from the struggle.

As you learn to leave alone the activity of unconsciously trying to be the mindbody that you think that you are - the mindbody that this "you" is currently flowing through - and you learn to move as this one that you truly are - this "you" of you; the very heart of existence - steadily, consciously and momentarily, the continuity of the ever deepening of this innermost as it keeps on entering its manifestation, through this mindbody that you find yourself flowing through, allows you to simply bubble in the sheer joy, pleasure, peace, delightfulness and stillness that this "you" of you is.

Our power over matter has become rather godlike, indeed. If our understanding of reality and ourselves does not correspond, we will surely make this world a hell. It is too cowardly to blame it on God, Buddha, Brahma, the Tao, the Random Universe, or whatever else. And it is a poor gamble to bank on nothingness - "what does it matter? - in hope of automatic anaesthesia beyond individual or planetary death. However difficult it may seem, we must each take responsibility, for our own absolute, examine what we think it is, how we came to that perspective, if it withstands critical analysis, and how it affects our actions. So we are vitally concerned to undertake the struggle for this Everest peak of this essence of True Eloquence.

A little boy was having difficulty lifting a heavy stone.
His father came along just then.

Noting the boy's failure, he asked, "Are you using all your strength?"

"Yes, I am," the little boy said impatiently.

"No, you are not," the father answered. "I am right here just waiting, and you haven't asked me to help you."

It is the conduct of any man to struggle and fall; it is the conduct of great men to rise and soar.

Fightin Within....the Hardest Beef is Right in Your Skin
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e340/tdev27/looknatcam2.jpg

I'm not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my ship.

If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation...want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.... Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

The difficulties and struggles of today are but the price we must pay for the accomplishments and victories of tomorrow

Show me the suffering of the most miserable;

So I will know my people's plight.

Free me to pray for others;

For you are present in every person.

Help me take responsibility for my own life;

So that I can be free at last.

Grant me courage to serve others;

For in service there is true life.

Give me honesty and patience;

So that the Spirit will be alive among us.

Let the Spirit flourish and grow;

So that we will never tire of the struggle.

Let us remember those who have died for justice;

For they have given us life.

Help us love even those who hate us;

So we can change the world

Amen

Struggle ends where commitment begins

It is possible I am pushing
through solid rock,
like the vein of ore
encased, alone.

I am such a long way in
I can see no way through and no space.
Everything is close to my face
and everything close to my face is stone.

I don't have much knowledge yet in grief,
so this darkness makes me feel small.
You, be the Master;
Make yourself fierce; break in.
And then your great transforming will happen to me
And my great grief cry will happen to you.

Sometimes humans beg for battles to be taken away from them, not realizing that only in struggling with shadows is the Light made manifest.