The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It's the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.

The strongest oak tree of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It's the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.

Every great leader of the past, whose record I have examined, was beset by difficulties and met with temporary defeat before arriving.

Meet struggle and master it, says nature, and you shall have strength and wisdom sufficient for all your needs.

Every adversity, every unpleasant circumstance, every failure, and every physical pain carries with it the seed of an equivalent benefit.

Strength, both physical and spiritual, is the product of struggle!

Remember, too, that all who succeed in life get off to a bad start, and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they "arrive." The turning point in the lives of those who succeed, usually comes at the moment of some crisis, through which they are introduced to their "other selves.

When I started in 'Drag Race,' I didn't know anything about drag - my makeup was a mess, my hair was a mess, but I love what I was doing.

Run The Jewels, me and Mike, and our connection and everything, came out of a period of time where I had personally lost everything.

We'd all like to increase pleasure and minimize pain, but the truth is, suffering, even collective suffering that we're going through, is often the earmark that some real change is happening.

Christianity is not stoicism. The Cross does not sanctify us by destroying human feeling. Detachment is not insensibility. Too many ascetics fail to become great saints precisely because their rules and ascetic practices have merely deadened their humanity instead of setting it free to develop richly, in all its capacities, under the influence of grace.

If we are called by God to holiness of life, and if holiness is beyond our natural power to achieve (which it certainly is) then it follows that God himself must give us the light, the strength, and the courage to fulfill the task he requires of us. He will certainly give us the grace we need.