That which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger," Mike said. "Except bears. Bears will kill you.

We can bemoan what we have lost, or we can be grateful to have been blessed with something to mourn.

They tried to bury us. They just didn't know we were seeds.

The thing is, the only real sign of life is growth. And growth requires pain. So to choose life is to accept pain. Some people go to such lengths to avoid pain that they give up on life. They bury their hearts, or they drug or drink themselves numb until they don't' feel anything anymore. The irony is, in the end their escape becomes more painful than what they're avoiding.

Sometimes the most whole people are those who come from the most broken circumstances.

Though adversity is the fertile soil in which the human spirit best grows, we loathe it still. I do not see how it can be otherwise, for no rational being seeks out pain and misfortune. Still, I cannot help but wonder if it is not somehow wrong to enjoy the fruit but curse the tree.

We do not succeed in spite of our obstacles and challenges. We succeed precisely because of them.

What a peculiar alchemist is time—transforming painful experiences into comedy.

I believe that, for the most part, we don't succeed in spite of our hardships but precisely because of them.

I have learned a great truth of life. We do not succeed in spite of our challenges and difficulties, but rather, precisely because of them.

Usually life's greatest gifts come wrapped in adversity.

Faith is not for overcoming obstacles; it is for experiencing them—all the way through!