Quietist Proverbs, Part 3

We shouldn’t try to avoid or end suffering, or expect help from anybody. And when we’re not at home cultivating contentment, we should rush out into the world and do difficult, dangerous and painful things.

God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers.

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

No pain no gain.

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. (T.S. Eliot, allegedly)

There is no education like adversity. (Benjamin Disraeli)

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us - they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us. (St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans 5:3-4)

We have nothing to fear but fear itself. (F.D. Roosevelt)


But we mustn’t expect to succeed. In fact, failure is somehow better than success. But if they’re sure we’re going to fail, why do they encourage us to work hard, embark on a journey of a thousand miles and dream the impossible dream? They are almost ordering us to fail.
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honourable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. (G.B. Shaw)

Expectation is better than realization.

Fail again, fail better. (Samuel Beckett)

Failure is just a way for our lives to show us we’re moving in the wrong direction, that we should try something different. (Oprah Winfrey)

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement. (C.S. Lewis)

I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate. (George Burns)

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. (Winston Churchill)

We learn more from our failures than our successes.


Even though they want us to fail, they’re always exhorting us to do the impossible. Make up your minds!
Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.
There’s no such word as can’t.
The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer.

There are many more unhelpful platitudes here.
And more depressing proverbs here, with links to the rest.