Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them … But you don't do either. Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It's too easy.

Joy does not come to you if you are spiritually passive; rather, joy is cultivated, but joy is cultivated by things you do.

Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.

Life in community with broken people will always include such disappointments. But they can be met with resilience, and with a faith in the eternal significance of a life lived with the suffering. Such a life will never be easy or tidy; the work is endless and will always stretch on before us.

When I think of the human suffering, the terrible amount of energy needed to move even infinitesimally toward a more decent life I am amazed at human patience.

Nothing goes so well with a hot fire and buttered crumpets as a wet day without and a good dose of comfortable horrors within. The heavier the lashing of the rain and the ghastlier the details, the better the flavour seems to be.

We cannot count on God to arrange what happens in our lives in ways that will make us feel good.We can, however, count on God to patiently remove all the obstacles to our enjoyment of Him. He is committed to our joy, and we can depend on Him to give us enough of a taste of that joy and enough hope that the best is still ahead to keep us going in spite of how much pain continues to plague our hearts.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at time of challenge and controversy.

He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

When you're in a Slump, you're not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

When something bad happens you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let is destroy you, or you can let it strengthen you.

And I learned that are troubles Of more than one kind Some come from ahead And some come from behind.