“He was the sort of stubborn person who grew more determined with rejection.”— Ron Chernow, amazon.com
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Looked at from this standpoint, I almost reached the conclusion that often the Negro boy's birth and connection with an unpopular…”— Booker T. Washington, amazon.com
“There are three things in which a man ought to exercise himself who would be wise and good. The first concerns the desires and the aversions that a man may not fail to get what he desires, and that he may not fall into that which he does not desire. The second concerns the movements (toward) and the…”— Epictetus, amazon.com
“When I begin my work in the morning, I expect to have a successful and pleasant day of it, but at the same time I prepare myself for unpleasant and unexpected hard places. I prepare myself to hear that one of our school buildings is on fire, or has burned, or that some disagreeable accident has occu…”— Booker T. Washington, amazon.com
“Why do we train? To perfect our flying skills, yes. But far more important, we practice to elevate our threshold of emotional detachment, to inculcate that state of preparedness and equilibrium that enables a pilot to function effectively under conditions of peril, urgency, and confusion.”— Major Ran Ronen, amazon.com
“Much have I suffered, labored long and hard by now in the waves and wars. Add this to the total–bring the trial on!”— Oddyseus, amazon.com
“There may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms–to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”— Viktor Frankl, amazon.com
“[Failure allows us] this opportunity to undertake a new action, better adapted to circumstances or else to discipline out of desire by accepting the will of destiny.”— Pierre Hadot, amazon.com
“At each instant, the good person tries to what it seems to him in a reasonable conformity with that which reason wants.”— Pierre Hadot, amazon.com
“Even if an obstacle should arise, action makes it a new source of exercises.”— Pierre Hadot, amazon.com
“We must not allow ourselves to be troubled by vain desires to do the impossible.”— Pierre Hadot, amazon.com
“Firm decision and intention always remain integral, even if an obstacle should arise which prevents their realization.”— Pierre Hadot, amazon.com
“Firm perseverance in decisions which are taken after mature reflection.”— Marcus Aurelius, amazon.com
“He undertakes everything with a reverse clause... in his most steadfast decisions, he allows for uncertain events.”— Pierre Hadot, amazon.com
“[Grant] revealed a resilience and determination in the face of frustration and failure. He never gave up, he just turned to something else, tried to be resourceful, never abandoning hope, always taking whatever he needed to do.”— Brooks Simpson, amazon.com
“When [Grant] begins a campaign, he fixes his mind what is the true objective point and abandons all minor ones. If his plan works wrong he is never disconcerted, but promptly devises a new one and is sure he will win in the end.”— Brooks Simpson, amazon.com