25 Quotes For When the Going Gets Tough

Those close to me know January was a tough month.

College started, I was officially diagnosed with Lyme disease after receiving a second confirming test, forging ahead with a few stressful reputation management campaigns for clients I work with & generally feeling a sense of discouragement.

This depressive spirit isn’t the natural habitat my inner-self likes to dwell in.

In an effort to jump out of this cesspool, I decided to compile a list of some of my favorite “when the going gets tough” quotes.

Quotes shed positive light on many situations.

I hope they lift you as much as they did for me.

“My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” – Oprah Winfrey
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.” – William James
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison
“There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.” – Christopher Morley
“He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh.” – Koran
“Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.” – W.H. Auden
“Every artist was first an amateur.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.” – Charles W. Eliot
“We need men who can dream of things that never were.” – John F. Kennedy
“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.” – Henry David Thoreau
“Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it.” – Cicero
“Man is the artificer of his own happiness.” – Henry David Thoreau
“We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.” – Lyndon B. Johnson
“Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.” – Joseph Addison
“I have given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself.” – Oscar Levant
“Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.” – M.L. Mencken
“Laugh at yourself first, before anyone else can.” – Elsa Maxwell
“Knowledge is power.” – Sir Francis Bacon
“Curiosity killed the cat, but for awhile I was a suspect.” – Steven Wright
“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.” – Woodrow Wilson
“Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.” – Marian Evans
“A ship in harbor is safe— but that is not what ships are for.” – John A. Shedd
“Courage is being scared to death – but saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne
“Real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.” – David McCullough