200 Provocative Quotes About Being Strong And Courageous

Sometimes in life, we go through hard times and it is at such times that our inner strength and characters are tested. These tests can come in different forms such as financial problems, the death of a loved one, relationship breakup, etc. At these times one will need a certain amount of courage to overcome. A lot of people give up at this point while others reach for their inner strength. Here are some quotes about being strong and courageous especially in times of trouble.

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Quotes About Strength

1. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie

2. “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” – Mary Anne Radmacher

3. “The brave may not live forever, but the cautious don’t live at all.” – Ashley L

4. “Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.” – Unknown

5. I think scars are like battle wounds – beautiful, in a way. They show what you’ve been through and how strong you are for coming out of it. – Demi Lovato

6. Women are like teabags. We don’t know our true strength until we are in hot water! – Eleanor Roosevelt

7. The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character. – Arnold Schwarzenegger

8. Perhaps I am stronger than I think. – Thomas Merton

9. Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go that does. – Hermann Hesse

10. I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death. – Leonardo da Vinci

11. Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential. – Winston Churchill

12. Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them. – Orison Swett Marden

13. “Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike.” – Theodore Roosevelt

14. “I have no regrets in my life. I think that everything happens to you for a reason. The hard times that you go through build character, making you a much stronger person.” – Rita Mero

15. “Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.” – Anne Frank

16. Out of suffering has emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
– Khalil Gibran

17. There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast. – Charles Dickens

18. Nobody can hurt me without my permission. – Mahatma Gandhi

19. Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. – W. H. Auden

20. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. – Mahatma Gandhi

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21. The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind. – Napoleon Bonaparte

22. Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason, mastery demands all of a person. – Albert Einstein

23. Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it. – Winston Churchill

24. I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. – Christopher Reeve

25. “Being strong doesn’t mean you’ll never get hurt. It means even when you get hurt, you’ll never let it defeat you.” ~ Unknown

26. Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”  ~ A. A. Milne

27. “Strength isn’t about how much you can handle before you break, it’s about how much you can handle after you break.”  ~ Unknown

28. “My strength did not come from lifting weights. My strength came from lifting myself up when I was knocked down.”  ~ Bob Moore

29. “Look at life through the windshield, not the rearview mirror.”  ~ Byrd Baggett

30. “Courage conquers all things: it even gives strength to the body.”  ~ Publius Ovidius Naso

31. “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.”  ~ Rudyard Kipling

32. “I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”  ~ Dr. Seuss

33. Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have the strength.”  ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

34. “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”  ~ Louisa May Alcott

35. “Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.”  ~ Oprah Winfrey

36. “Through every dark night, there’s a bright day after that. So no matter how hard it gets, stick your chest out, keep your head up, and handle it.”  ~ Tupac Shakur

37. “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” ~ Muhammad Ali

38. “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”  ~ Henry Ford

39. “Never be ashamed of a scar. It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.” ~ Unknown

40. “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”  ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

41. “Strength isn’t about bearing a cross of grief or shame. Strength comes from choosing your own path, and living with the consequences.”  ~ Jenny Trout

42. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” ~ Dale Carnegie.

43. “The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.”  ~ Japanese Proverb

44. “Strength is the capacity to break a Hershey bar into four pieces with your bare hands – and then eat just one of the pieces.”  ~ Judith Viorst

45. “Make up your mind that no matter what comes your way, no matter how difficult, no matter how unfair, you will do more than simply survive. You will thrive in spite of it.”  ~ Joel Osteen

46. “Everything is okay in the end, if it’s not ok, then it’s not the end.”  ~ Anonymous

47. “Be strong. You never know who you are inspiring.” ~ Unknown

48. “Anyone can give up; it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone would expect you to fall apart, that’s true strength.”  ~ Chris Bradford

49. “You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it.”  ~ Robin Sharma

50. “Throw me to the wolves and I will return leading the pack.”  ~ Unknown

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51. “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

52. “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”  ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

53. “Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.”  ~ Orison Swett Marden

54. “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.”  ~ Cayla Mills

55. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan

56. “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” – James Dean

57. “True strength is keeping everything together when everyone expects you to fall apart.” – Unknown

58. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Chinese Proverb

59. “You were given this life, because you are strong enough to live it.” – Robin Sharma

60. “A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of a sheep.”  ~ Vernon Howard

61. “The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping-stones is how you use them.”  ~ Unknown

62. “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”  ~ Frederick Douglass

63. “The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.”  ~ Moliere

64. “The struggle you’re in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow. Don’t give up.”  ~ Robert Tew

65. “Hardship prepares ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” ~ C.S. Lewis

66. “If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”  ~ Frank A. Clark

67. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.”  ~ Japanese Proverb

68. “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”  ~ Dale Carnegie

69. “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

70. “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus

71. “Anyone can hide. Fessing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong.” – Sarah Dessen

72. “Courage is looking fear right in the eye and saying, “Get the hell out of my way, I’ve got things to do.” – Unknown

73. “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

74. When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure. – Peter Marshall

75. Where there is no struggle, there is no strength. – Oprah Winfrey

76. One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity. ~ Unknown

77. Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have. ~ Norman Vincent Peale

78. Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory. ~ William Barclay

79. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”  ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

80. “The task ahead of you is never greater than the strength within you.”  ~ Unknown

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Inspirational Quotes About Inner Strength

81. “Most great people have attained their greatest success one step beyond their greatest failure.”  ~ Napoleon Hill

82. “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its troubles; it empties today of its strength.”  ~ Corrie ten Boom

83. “Hard times don’t create heroes. It is during the hard times when the ‘hero’ within us is revealed.”  ~ Bob Riley

84. “You never know how strong you are… until being strong is the only choice you have.” ― Cayla Mills

85. “Fall down seven times, get up eight.” – Japanese Proverb

86. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” – Audrey Hepburn

87. “Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” – James Dean

88. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”  ~ Nelson Mandela

89. “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”  ~ Ernest Hemingway

90. “The will of the strong will never be shaken by doubts of the weak.”  ~ Unknown

91. “Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.”  ~ Susan Gale

92. “You are never given anything in this world that you can’t handle. Be strong and just keep moving forward.”
~ Unknown

93. “For a tree to become tall it must grow tough roots among the rocks.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

94. “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.”  ~ Louis Pasteur

95. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”  ~ Winston Churchill

96. “We acquire the strength we have overcome.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

97. “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”  ~ Babe Ruth

98. “The first step is you have to say that you can.”  ~ Will Smith

99. “He knows not his own strength who hath not met adversity.”  ~ William Samuel Johnson

100. “All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.”  ~ Mitch Albom

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101. Silence is a source of great strength. ~ Lao Tzu

102. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. – Frederick Douglass

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103. Only the gentle are ever really strong. ~ James Dean

104. Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength. ~ Charles Spurgeon

105. Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. ~ Dale Carnegie

106. “Be strong. Live honorably and with dignity. When you don’t think you can, hold on.”  ~ James Frey

107. “Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities… always see them… for they’re always there.”  ~ Norman Vincent Peale

108. “The strongest people are not those who show strength in front of us, but those who win battles we know nothing about.”  ~ Unknown

109. “Remember that guy that gave up? Neither does anyone else.”  ~ Unknown

110. “Anyone can hide. Fessing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong.”
~ Sarah Dessen

111. “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”  ~ Christopher Reeve

112. “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.”  ~ Carl Bard

113. “You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”  ~ Walt Disney

114. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”  ~ Michael Jordan

115. “Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.”  ~ Susan Gale

116. Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength. ~ Saint Francis de Sales

117. The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother. ~ Charles Dickens

118. “Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.” – Susan Gale

119. “Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.” – Tony Robbins

120. “Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope” – Hal Lindsey

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121. “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” – Helen Keller

122. “People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

123. “You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.” – James A. Froude

124. “Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.” – Charles Reade

125. “The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.” – Leonardo da Vinci

126. “Anyone can hide. Fessing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong.”  – Sarah Dessen

127. “Courage is looking fear right in the eye and saying, ‘Get the hell out of my way, I’ve got things to do.’” – Unknown– Louise Erdrich

128. “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” – Ernest Hemingway

129. “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Mahatma Gandhi

130. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”  ~ Nelson Mandela

131. “Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”  ~ Sigmund Freud

132. “Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.”  ~ Plato

133. “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.”  ~ Reverend Phillips Brooks

134. “In the middle of a difficulty lies opportunity.”  ~ Albert Einstein

135. “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.

136. “Do not pray for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.”  ~ Bruce Lee

137. “When something bad happens, you have three choices: You can either let it define you, let it destroy you or let it strengthen you.”  ~ Unknown

138. “If you are going through hell, keep going.”  ~ Winston Churchill

139. “Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. Strength comes from overcoming the things you thought you couldn’t.”  ~ Unknown

140. “Never, ever ever ever ever give up.”  ~ Winston Churchill

141. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.  ~ Helen Keller

142. The world breaks everyone, and afterwards, some are strong at the broken places. – Ernest Hemingway

143. All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you. ~ Walt Disney

144. You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. – Marcus Aurelius

145. We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

146. “A river cuts through a rock not because of its power, but its persistence.”  ~ Unknown

147. “It’s not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.”  ~ J.R.R Tolkien

148. “Tough times never last, but tough people do.”  ~ Robert H. Schuller

149. “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”  ~ John Wayne

150. “If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” – Bruce Lee

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Quotes About Strength In Hard Times

151. “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

152. “Nobody can hurt me without my permission.” – Mahatma Gandhi

153. “A heart is a muscle..and what do muscles do when they are torn? They grow back STRONGER!” – Unknown

154. “Strength does not come from physical capacity, it comes from indomitable will.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

155. “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” ~ Buddha

156. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

157. “Strength is the product of struggle, you must do what others don’t to achieve what others won’t.” ~ Henry Rollins

158. “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

159. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

160. “True strength is keeping everything together when everyone expects you to fall apart.” – Unknown

161. “Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.” – Unknown

162. “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.”  ~ Thomas Edison

163. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”  ~ Confucius

164. “In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.” ~
Robert Frost

165. A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others, is stronger than any physical force in the universe. ~ Wayne Dyer

166. The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt. ~ Max Lerner

167. The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong. ~ Swami Vivekananda

168. Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak. ~ Thomas Carlyle

169. “This too shall pass away.”  ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

170. “You never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”  ~ Unknown

171. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” ~ Thomas A. Edison

172. “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” ~ Charles Darwin

173. A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. ~ Christopher Reeve

174. 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

175. Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved. ~ Mattie Stepanek

176. “Nobody can hurt me without my permission.” – Mahatma Gandhi

177. “If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” – Bruce Lee

178. “In the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths.” ― Drew Barrymore

179. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

180. “The most beautiful people I’ve known are those who have known trials, have known struggles, have known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.” – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

181. “Talents are best nurtured in solitude, but character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

182. “Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming.” – Jim Rohn

183. “The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.” – Thomas Babington Macaulay

184. “The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

185. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

186. “Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.”  ~ Rikki Rogers

187. “You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So… get on your way!”  ~ Dr. Seuss

188. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”  ~ Joseph Kennedy

189. “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”  ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

190. “I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.”  ~ Jewish Proverb

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191. “You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”  ~ Marcus Aurelius

192. A strong man doesn’t have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn’t match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world. ~ Marilyn Monroe

193. The God we serve does not seek out the perfect, but instead uses our imperfections and our shortcomings for his greater good. I am humbled by my own limitations. But where I am weak, He is strong.
~ Rick Perry

194. Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle. – Napoleon Hill

195. Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. – Abraham Lincoln

196. A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of a sheep.
– Vernon Howard

197. Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career. – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

198. When adversity strikes, that’s when you have to be the most calm. Take a step back, stay strong, stay grounded and press on. – LL Cool J

199. It doesn’t take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go. – J. C. Watts

200. Even cowards can endure hardship; only the brave can endure suspense. – Mignon McLaughlin

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CJ Stanley
CJ Stanley
CJ is a voracious learner, especially when it has to do with infotech. He loves good food and when he is not surfing the web, he is trying out some strange but amazing food combinations.

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