Resilience is a powerful tool that can help us to achieve our greatest aspirations and overcome our most difficult obstacles. It’s an attitude and mindset that allows us to navigate adversity and maintain a strong sense of determination even in times of difficulty.

Across the centuries, thinkers and philosophers have shared inspiring quotes about resilience that call upon us to stay true to ourselves no matter how long the journey may be.

These 91+ quotes present a diverse garland of wisdom on how resilience can sustain us along any path we take, no matter how winding or unpredictable it may be.

91+ Empowering Quotes & Captions About Resilience

1. Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient. -Steve Maraboli
2. No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That’s the only way to keep the roads clear. –Greg Kincaid
3. Resilient survivors handle their feelings well when hit with unexpected difficulties no matter how unfair. When hurt and distressed, they expect to eventually recover and find a way to have things turn out well. -Al Siebert
4. We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. –J.K. Rowling
5. Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. –Kahlil Gibran
6. 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
7. When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. -Audre Lorde
8. Courage isn’t having the strength to go on, it is going on when you don’t have the strength. –Napoleon Bonaparte
9. 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
10. When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure. –Peter Marshall
11. Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. -Confucius
12. When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t. –Thomas A. Edison
13. Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare. -Angela Duckworth
14. You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. –Marcus Aurelius
15. Resilience is our ability to bounce back from life’s challenges and unforeseen difficulties, providing mental protection from emotional and mental disorders. -Michael Rutter
16. Fall seven times, stand up eight. -Japanese Proverb
17. I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning. -B. Priestley
18. Resilience has been described as the capacity for positive outcomes despite challenging or threatening circumstances. -Byron Egeland
19. The behavioral component of resilience enables people to remain effective at home and work, able to focus on relevant tasks and goals and carry them out. -Ivan Robertson
20. The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived. -Robert Jordan
21. Resilience is seen as more than simple recovery from insult, rather it can be defined as positive growth or adaptation following periods of homeostatic disruption. -Laura Campbell-Sills
22. Change is inevitable – except for a vending machine. -Robert Gallagher
23. Resilience can be viewed as a defense mechanism, which enables people to thrive in the face of adversity, and improving resilience may be an important target for treatment and prophylaxis. -Dmitry Davydov
24. Resilience arises out of a belief in one’s own self-efficacy, the ability to deal with change, and the use of a repertoire of problem-solving skills. -Brigid Gillespie
25. If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. -Maya Angelou
26. Internal locus of control influences responses to stressful events by improving coping strategies and reducing anxiety. Thus, perceived control is a key marker of stress resilience. -Tonya Jacobs
27. Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good. -Elizabeth Edwards 
28. If we want to help vulnerable youngsters become more resilient, we need to decrease their exposure to potential risk factors and increase their competencies and self-esteem, as well as the sources of support they can draw upon. -Emmy Werner
29. The concept of mental resilience is crucial to our understanding of how risks may be modified and disorders prevented. -Dmitry Davydov
30. Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have. -Margaret Mead
31. Resilience to the unsettling effects of interpersonal loss is not rare but relatively common, does not appear to indicate pathology but rather a a healthy adjustment, and does not lead to delayed grief reactions. -George Bonanno
32. ‎Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself and be lenient to everybody else. -Henry Ward Beecher
33. It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, that we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous – even death is terrible only if we fear it. –Epictetus
34. You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -Mohandas Gandhi 
35. 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
36. It’s not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it. . . Adopting the right attitude can convert negative stress into positive one. -Hans Selye
37. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, whether you learn from it; or whether you choose to persevere. –Barack Obama
38. It’s crazy, how similar we are. Here are both of us, working through our stuff, trying to make something positive out of something really bad. –Jenny Han
39. It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. –Charles Darwin
40. The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still going to be a rat. -Lily Tomlin
41. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. –Ambrose Redmoon
42. The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance. -Jodi Picoult
43. The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists. –Proverb
44. The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. -Albert Einstein
45. Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. –Robert F. Kennedy
46. If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces. -Shane Koyczan
47. Resilience represents a constellation of characteristics that protect individuals from the potential negative effect of stressors. -Ivan Robertson
48. Wings are not only for birds; they are also for minds. Human potential stops at some point somewhere beyond infinity. -Toller Cranston
49. Forget mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you are going to do right now, and do it. Today is your lucky day. –Will Durant
50. 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 the first principles of hope and enjoyment. –Bram Stoker
51. He’s a million rubber bands in his resilience. –Alan K. Simpson
52. When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. -Helen Keller
53. No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That’s the only way to keep the roads clear. -Greg Kincaid
54. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles. –Alex Karras
55. I knew there was a way out. I knew there was another kind of life because I had read about it. I knew there were other places, and there was another way of being. -Oprah Winfrey
56. Resilience is the ability to attack while running away. –Wes Fessler
57. Resilience can be defined as reduced vulnerability to environmental risk experiences, the overcoming of stress or adversity, or a relatively good outcome despite risk experiences.  -Michael Rutter
58. The mind is its own place and can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven. -John Milton
59. I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it. –Maya Angelou
60. It’s your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop. –Dieter F. Uchtdorf
61. Thinking is easy, acting difficult, and putting one’s thoughts into action, is the most difficult thing in the world. -Goethe
62. A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. –Christopher Reeve
63. 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 the first principles of hope and enjoyment. -Bram Stoker
64. A Child Called. It was a story about resilience, it was never about boo-hoo-hoo. It was about a kid that didn’t quit. -Dave Pelzer
65. Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. -Robert Louis Stevenson
66. Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems. –Gever Tulley
67. Sometimes carrying on, just carrying on, is a superhuman achievement. –Albert Camus
68. There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, and the other is pulling up. -Booker T. Washington
69. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. -Unknown
70. The human capacity for burden is like bamboo – far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance. –Jodi Picoult
71. Resilience is, of course, necessary for a warrior. But a lack of empathy isn’t. –Phil Klay
72. Find a survivor who can be a role model for you. For me it is Lassie: whenever I run into difficulties I ask myself, What would Lassie do now? -Bernie Siegel
73. Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it. –Helen Keller
74. The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat. –Woodrow Wilson
75. You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it. -Margaret Thatcher
76. Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up. –Mary Holloway
77. Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. –J.K. Rowling
78. Resilience results from having the encounter at a time, and in a way, that the body can cope successfully with the noxious challenge to its system. -Michael Rutter
79. If you’re going through hell, keep going. Why would you want to stop there. -Unknown
80. Stable, healthy, and resilient physicians are also better equipped for the emotionally and physically demanding tasks of providing care, comfort and hope to patients. -Laura Dunn
81. It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop. -Dieter F. Uchtdorf
82. This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure. –Winston Churchill
83. No matter how you define success, you will need to be resilient, empowered, authentic, and limber to get there. –Joanie Connell
84. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. –Napoleon Hill
85. It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop. –Dieter F. Uchtdorf
86. There are two kinds of strength. Power and the ability to wield it are obvious, but a resilience, the ability to resist power, is the other. -Raymond E. Feist
87. Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again. -Nelson Mandela
88. Indeed, this life is a test. It is a test of many things – our convictions and priorities, our faith and our faithfulness, our patience and our resilience, and in the end, our ultimate desires. –Sheri L. Dew
89. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you. –2 Chronicles 20:17
90. Stand firm, and you will win life. –Luke 21:19
91. Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall. –Oliver Goldsmith
92. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. –2 Corinthians 4:8-9
93. Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day. –E.B. White
94. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. -Isaiah 41:10

Resilience is a vital life skill that plays an essential role in our journey to success. It involves determination, strength, and the ability to push through adversity no matter the cost. When hardships arise, resilience gives us the courage to confront them head-on and move forward.

As these 91+ quotes about resilience illustrate, we have the power to overcome any challenge that comes our way by maintaining a strong mindset, staying focused on our goals, and believing in ourselves.

We can make it through any circumstance with resilience as our guiding light.