Adversity, if for no other reason, is of benefit, since it is sure to bring a season of sober reflection. People see clearer at such times. Storms purify the atmosphere.

Don't duck the most difficult problems. That just ensures that the hardest part will be left when you are most tired. Get the big one done - it's downhill from then on.

Have I yet to learn that the hardest and best-borne trials are those which are never chronicled in any earthly record, and are suffered every day!

You will profit by the failure, and will avoid it another time. I have done a similar thing myself, in construction, often. Every failure teaches a man something, if he will learn.

If you allow it, [suffering] can be the means by which God brings you His greatest blessings.

you leave the cage, the transition into the jungle will definitely be challenging. You take a few steps forward and a few back. You stumble and fall and get back on your feet. Such is the way we learn to lean forward and keep stumbling toward success.

The finished product you see on the peaks is the end result of the resurrection in the valley.

But you see, it is the wilderness that weeds out the saints from the "aint's.

God had a strategy in the ugly places because those were the fields in which he decided to cultivate us.

It is from the depths of dark and dirty places in our lives that we scream for God's attention and help while misunderstanding that, just like with a natural seed, it is the microbes in the soil of life that eat away at our efforts to protect ourselves from harm.

Crushing requires purification. Do you know anyone who would purify something they do not intend to use? Your crushing cannot be the end, because God would never purify you if He didn't intend to use you.

Even in the moments of your greatest anguish, you often find unexpected blessings alongside and commingled with your losses.