61 Quotes About Strength And Resilience For Uncertain Times

In times of uncertainty, quotes about resilience and strength bring solace.

By
Nellah Bailey McGough
Nellah Bailey McGough
Nellah Bailey McGough
Nellah McGough runs the day-to-day operations in the Southern Living Birmingham office, responds to reader questions and comments, manages freelancer contracts, and invoices. She is also the co-host (with Steve Bender) of Ask Grumpy Podcast. 
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Updated on February 2, 2024

When faced with a challenge, there is nothing scarier than not knowing. When we lack control over a situation, there's no clear path to moving forward in strength. Get inspiration from these quotes about strength and resilience. Diving into uncertainty and weathering the storm may be the only option. And still, we overcome.

We're looking to wise figures throughout history—from Eleanor Roosevelt to Charles Dickens—to gain some perspective on challenges and find the motivation to keep moving forward during difficult times. Their words remind us that we can overcome anything, even fears that loom larger than any challenge we've previously faced. In times of uncertainty, may these quotes give you resilience and strength.

01 of 05

Quotes About Strength and Resilience

Reaction to Adversity Quote

Southern Living
  • "It's your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life's story will develop." – Dieter F. Uchtdorf
  • "Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again." – Nelson Mandela
  • "This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure." – Winston Churchill
  • "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." – Martin Luther King Jr.
  • "I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it." – Maya Angelou
  • "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." – Ambrose Redmoon
  • "Don't despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don't – surrender to events with hope." – Alain de Botton
  • "It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous – even death is terrible only if we fear it." – Epictetus
  • "No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That's the only way to keep the roads clear." – Greg Kincaid
  • "We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided." – J.K. Rowling
  • “Life is very interesting…in the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.” - Drew Barrymore
  • “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” - Khalil Gibran
  • “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” - Ernest Hemingway
  • "You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice." – Bob Marley
  • “Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy
02 of 05

Quotes About Strength and Love

Strength Quote Mary Oliver

Southern Living
  • "Someone I once loved gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift." – Mary Oliver
  • "Courage isn't having the strength to go on, it is going on when you don't have the strength." – Napoleon Bonaparte
  • "When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure." – Peter Marshall
  • "When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't." – Thomas A. Edison
  • "You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." – Marcus Aurelius
  • "We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down." – Eleanor Roosevelt
  • “It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.” - Vincent Van Gogh
  • "Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time." – Maya Angelou
  • "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." – Lao Tzu
03 of 05

Quotes About Strength and Hope

Strength Quote My Sister's Keeper

Southern Living
  • "The human capacity for burden is like bamboo – far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance." – Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper
  • "It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment." – Bram Stoker, Dracula
  • "We don't even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward." – Isabel Allende
  • "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'" – Eleanor Roosevelt
  • "We are stronger, gentler, more resilient, and more beautiful than any of us imagine." – Mark Nepo
  • "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." – Nelson Mandela
  • "There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast." – Charles Dickens
  • “I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.” - Audrey Hepburn
  • “We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free.” - Kavita Ramdas
  • "Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat." – Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
  • "What makes you different or weird, that's your strength." – Meryl Streep
  • “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus
  • “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie
  • “Out of difficulties grow miracles.” – Jean de la Bruyere
04 of 05

Short Quotes About Strength

Struggle and Strength Quote Oprah Winfrey

Southern Living
  • "Where there is no struggle, there is no strength." – Oprah Winfrey
  • "Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life." – J.K. Rowling
  • “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
  • "We will either find a way, or make one." – Anibal Barca
  • "Grief and resilience live together." – Michelle Obama, Becoming
  • “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” - Mahatma Gandhi
  • “A brave man acknowledges the strength of others.” - Veronica Roth
  • “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.” - Edmund Hillary
  • “Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.” - Lao Tzu
  • "If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it." – Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
  • "Courage is found in unlikely places." – J.R.R. Tolkein, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
  • "Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm." – Abraham Lincoln
  • “Remember: Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up.” – Rocky Balboa
05 of 05

Quotes About Strength and Perseverance

Resilience Quote Southern Living

Southern Living
  • "Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems." – Gever Tulley
  • “Nothing is more beautiful than the smile that has struggled through the tears.” - Demi Lovato
  • “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” - Christopher Reeve 
  • “And one has to understand that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear.” - Paulo Coelho
  • “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” - Marie Curie
  • “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." – Mahatma Ghandi
  • “Inside of a ring or out, ain’t nothing wrong with going down. It’s staying down that’s wrong.” – Muhammad Ali
  • “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher
  • “If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it.” – Michael Jordan
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