90 Resilience Quotes to Inspire Your Next Comeback

By Nia Simone McLeod

Writer, Video Editor & Pop Culture Enthusiast

Published August 29, 2023

Resilience is what separates those who do from those who don’t.

So, today, we have curated these resilience quotes from dozens of successful people who personify it.

What does “resilience” mean to you?

Are you preparing to bounce back from a career setback?

Maybe you are looking for inspiration to make a big change within your own life; like moving to a brand new city.

Mastering resilience is not letting failure control your mindset.

If you can make important decisions without being plagued by the fear of failure, then you’re ahead of the game.

In the quotes below, these prominent figures remind you that you can do it.

All you need is faith in your abilities.

Check out some of the most inspirational resilience quotes available below.

Don’t forget to also read these motivating finish strong quotes to help you go the distance.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Check out our inspirational quotes category page for more inspirational life quotes.

Resilience quotes to remind you of your strength

1. “Resilience is knowing that you are the only one that has the power and the responsibility to pick yourself up.” – Mary Holloway

You will also enjoy our article on consistency quotes.

2. “The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat.” – Woodrow Wilson

3. “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” – Helen Keller

4. “Proactively working to develop mental strength increases your resilience to stress and reduces the toll it takes on you both physically and mentally.” – Amy Morin

5. “Resilience is, of course, necessary for a warrior. But a lack of empathy isn’t.” – Phil Klay

6. “Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.” – Gever Tulley

7. “Resilience isn’t a single skill. It’s a variety of skills and coping mechanisms. To bounce back from bumps in the road as well as failures, you should focus on emphasizing the positive.” – Jean Chatzky

8. “She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.” – Elizabeth Edwards

9. “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, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” – Barack Obama

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

11. “The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.” – Proverb

12. “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

13. “Resilience is the ability to attack while running away.” – Wes Fessler

14. “Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive.” – Jamais Cascio

15. “Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles.” – Alex Karras

16. “He’s a million rubber bands in his resilience.” – Alan K. Simpson

You will also enjoy our article on comeback quotes.

Resilience quotes to inspire you

17. “Experience life in all possible ways — good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light, summer-winter. Experience all the dualities. Don’t be afraid of experience, because the more experience you have, the more mature you become.” – Osho
If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of Osho quotes on how to live life and find inspiration.

18. “Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy

19. “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

20. “Resilience can go an awful long way.” – Eddie the Eagle

21. “We will either find a way, or make one.” – Anibal Barca

22. “I tried and failed. I tried again and again and succeeded.” – Gail Borden

23. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

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

25. “Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.” – Anthony Robbins

26. “Turn your wounds into wisdom.” – Oprah Winfrey

27. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

28. “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

29. “If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.” – Shane Koyczan

For additional reading, be sure to also check out these hero quotes that will inspire you to make a difference.

You will also enjoy our article on humble quotes.

Resilience quotes to help you move forward

30. “No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That’s the only way to keep the roads clear.” – Greg Kincaid

31. “Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going.” – Yasmin Mogahed

32. “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before.” – Elizabeth Edwards

33. “Part of resilience is deciding to make yourself miserable over something that matters, or deciding to make yourself miserable over something that doesn’t matter.” – Elizabeth Edwards

34. “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” – Winston Churchill

35. “We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.” – Stephen Covey

If you enjoy this article, check out our collection of grit quotes to help you get through life.

Resilience quotes to inspire success

36. “The moment we believe that success is determined by an ingrained level of ability as opposed to resilience and hard work, we will be brittle in the face of adversity.” – Joshua Waitzkin

37. “In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, to struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.” – Albert Bandura

38. “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.” – David Brinkley

39. The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Nelson Mandela

40. “Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember–the only taste of success some people get is to take a bite out of you.” – Zig Ziglar

41. “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton

42. “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sassoon

43. “It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks.” – Bob Richards

44. “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” – Tony Robbins

45. “Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.” – Malcolm S. Forbes

46. “If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” – Steve Jobs

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

48. “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston S. Churchill

49. “The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” – Colin R. Davis

50. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston S. Churchill

If you’re enjoying this article, make sure to also check out our collection of superhero quotes to inspire the best version of you.

More resilience quotes and sayings

51. “There’s no such thing as ruining your life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.” – Sophie Kinsella

52. “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” – Steve Maraboli

53. “Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were way out of your range.” – Gregory Boyle

54. “Resilience is not about being able to bounce back like nothing has happened. Resilience is your consistent resistance to give up.” – Janna Cachola

55. “Resilience is distinct from mere survival, and more than mere endurance. Resilience is often endurance with direction.” – Eric Greitens

56. “All of us need to begin to think in terms of our own inner strengths, our resilience and resourcefulness, our capacity to adapt and to rely upon ourselves and our families.” – Steven Pressfield

57. “You learn to be resilient, to survive when you know you are capable of making worthy contribution to the world; you fight it when you have nothing to lose and so much to gain.” – Mala Naidoo

58. “Loving ourselves calls us to give up the illusion that we can control everything and focuses us on building our inner resource of resilience.” – Sharon Salzberg

59. “The more we can embrace failure, the more we will be able to open to it and the more confident and resilient we will become.” – Karen Kimsey-House

60. “Having high resilience does not mean it doesn’t sometimes sting.” – Aisha Mirza

You will also enjoy our article on adversity quotes.

Inspirational Resilience Quotes to Empower You

61. “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.” – Angela Duckworth

62. “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” – Robert Jordan

63. “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

64. “The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.” – Jodi Picoult

65. “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 first principles of hope and enjoyment.” – Bram Stoker

66. “My barn having burned down, I can now see the moon.” – Mizuta Masahide

67. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher

68. “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” – Nelson Mandela

69. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” – Maya Angelou

70. Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life.” – J.K. Rowling

Resilience Quotes To Help You Know Your Capabilities

71. “Each deep breath taken during Yoga practice builds internal strength and resilience.” ― Purvi Raniga

72. “Resilience is overcoming adversity, whilst also potentially changing, or even dramatically transforming, (aspects of) that adversity.” ― Angie Hart

73.”Resilience has been described as the capacity for positive outcomes despite challenging or threatening circumstances.” ― Byron Egeland

74. “Resilience or hardiness is the ability to adapt to new circumstances when life presents the unpredictable.” ― Salvatore R. Maddi

75. “Resiliency is the ability to spring back from and successfully adapt to adversity.” ― Nan Henderson

76. “Blaming others for how bad things are for you, keeps you in a non-resilient victim state in which you do not take resiliency actions.” ― Al Siebert

77. “A few people are born resilient. The rest of us need to work consciously at developing our abilities.” ― Al Siebert

78. “Our resilience increases as we recognize the magnitude of what we have already accomplished.” ― Patricia O’Gorman

79. “The most resilient people are like playful, curious children.” ― Al Siebert

80. “Being resilient is so much easier when you’re surrounded by the right people.” ― Maxime Lagacé

Resilience Quotes to Empower and Strengthen Your Spirit

81. “I do believe there’s a heaven. I do believe that God has given me the resilience and the survival skills to withstand the chiffon trenches.” ― Andre Leon Talley

82. “If you have high self-esteem, you might still know times of emotional suffering, but less often and with faster recovery-your resilience is greater.” ― Nathaniel Branden

83. “In many ways, the idea of resilience is a more useful concept than the idea of sustainability.” ― Rob Hopkins

84. “Investing now in safe-guarding people by helping them to adapt to climate change, will help save money and lives while building resilience.” ― Michael Franti

85. “Resilience is not just a complimentary individual quality, but something that is built. And you build it through a number of things in your life, part of it being social fabric.” ― James Redford

86. “When small towns find they cannot harm the strangest of their members, when eccentrics show resilience, they are eventually embraced and even cherished.” ― Louise Erdrich

87. “It’s amazing how much resilience you can have when you’re passionate about a project that you’re doing.” ― Tamara Mellon

88. “True will is quiet humility, resilience, and flexibility; the other kind of will is weakness disguised by bluster and ambition.” ― Ryan Holiday

89. I have a lot of stamina and I have a lot of resilience.” ― Hillary Clinton

90. “When you choose to connect with others under stress, you can create resilience.” ― Kelly McGonigal

Resilience Quotes for Your Unbreakable Spirit

91. “Above all, cancer is a spiritual practice that teaches me about faith and resilience.” — Kris Carr

92. “Sophistication” is another word for that inventive mix of tolerance, resilience, and resourcefulness city people develop.” — Edward Hoagland

93. “I survived my childhood by birthing many separate identities to stand in for one another in times of great stress and fear.” — Roseanne Barr

94. “My childhood gave me resilience – and there’s little that can surprise me in life.” — Natalia Vodianova

95. “Gratitude has a big job to do in us and our hearts. It is one of the chief ways that God infuses joy and resilience into the daily struggle of life.” — Nancy Leigh DeMoss

96. “Nature works with five polymers. Only five polymers. In the natural world, life builds from the bottom up, and it builds in resilience and multiple uses.” — Janine Benyus

97. “I’m inspired by the resilience of people around the world.” — Kathy Calvin

98. “Embracing failure is the most important trait I’ve developed in my career. I have tried to learn from my failures, and I believe it has made me stronger, more confident and more resilient.” — Reshma Saujani

99. “There is nothing about resilience that I can say that my father did not first utter silently in eighteen years of living inside a two-dimensional cutout of himself.” — Elizabeth Edwards

100. “Youth has the resilience to absorb disaster and weave it into the pattern of its life, no mater how anguishing the thorn that penetrates its flesh.” — Sholem Asch

Resilience Quotes During Adversity

101. “No one escapes pain, fear, and suffering. Yet from pain can come wisdom, from fear can come courage, from suffering can come strength if we have the virtue of resilience.” — Eric Greitens

102. “Resilience is based on compassion for ourselves as well as compassion for others.” — Sharon Salzberg

103. “Resilience is not what happens to you. It’s how you react to, respond to, and recover from what happens to you.” — Jeffrey Gitomer

104. “When we learn how to become resilient, we learn how to embrace the beautifully broad spectrum of the human experience.” — Jaeda Dewalt

105. “True entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart, but for those who are willing to put in the hard work, persistence, and resilience every single day.” ― Farshad Asl

106. “The beauty of a resilient spirit is that it shines brightest in the face of adversity.” ― Amit Ray

107. “Like precious metal in the furnace, hardship tempers us and refines our character, forging us into a stronger and more resilient version of ourselves.” ― Shabira Banu Sumbhaniya

108. “Valor is rejuvenation through resilience.” ― Abhijit Naskar

109. “Resilience, according to the establishment, is not a degree of some indeterminable measure of inner peace. Resilience is instead synonymous with success.” ― Stephanie Foo

110. “Resilience, simply put, is seeing something through to the end.” ― Nick Chellsen