Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,

—Shakespeare

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt

—Shakespeare

Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.

—George Sand

Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, and black despair succeeds brown study

William Congreve

Every winner has scars

Herbert N. Casson

Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings

—Shakespeare

I am the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be a cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forbode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better.

Abraham Lincoln

When the fight begins within himself, a man's worth something.

Robert Browning

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.

Kenji Miyazawa

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

M. Kathleen Casey

The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.

Virginia Woolf

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.n

Ralph Waldo Emerso

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.

African Proverb

The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.

John Vance Cheney

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.

Rainer Maria Rilke

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

Socrates

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.

Truman Capot

Having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting, it may not be logical but it is often true.

Mr. Spock, Star Trek

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those
that tell of saddest thought.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ode to a Sky Lark"

Rock bottom is good solid ground, and a dead end street is just a place to turn around.

Buddy Buie and J.R. Cobb, "Rock Bottom" (song)

If the wind will not serve, take to the oars

Latin Proverb