One has to abandon altogether the search for security, and reach out to the risk of living with both arms. One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.
—Morris West (1916–99) Australian Novelist, Vatican Specialist
Often the prudent, far from making their destinies, succumb to them.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
If you want a place in the sun, you’ve got to put up with a few blisters.
—Pauline Phillips (Abigail van Buren) (1918–2013) American Advice Columnist, Radio Personality
Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Public opinion is a weak tyrant, compared with our private opinion – what a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates his fate.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
I not only bow to the inevitable; I am fortified by it.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
The secret of my success is that at an early age I discovered I was not God.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
Science says: “We must live,” and seeks the means of prolonging, increasing, facilitating and amplifying life, of making it tolerable and acceptable; wisdom says: “We must die”, and seeks how to make us die well.
—Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) Spanish Educator, Philosopher, Author
Nature is what you may do. There is much you may not do.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The secret of happiness … is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm, always lucid, always willing “to be joined to the universe without being more conscious of it than an idiot,” to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
Resistance causes pain and lethargy. It is when we practice acceptance that new possibilities appear.
—Unknown
To repel one’s cross is to make it heavier.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
Joy exists only in self-acceptance. Seek perfect acceptance, not a perfect life.
—Anonymous
I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of goodwill. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy, and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Things cannot always go your way. Learn to accept in silence the minor aggravations, cultivate the gift of taciturnity and consume your own smoke with an extra draught of hard work, so that those about you may not be annoyed with the dust and soot of your complaints.
—William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian Physician
Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.
—Brendan Behan (1923–64) Irish Poet, Novelist, Playwright
We cannot conquer fate and necessity, yet we can yield to them in such a manner as to be greater than if we could.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.
—Joan Didion (1934–2021) American Essayist, Novelist, Memoirist
It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
Do not attempt to do a thing unless you are sure of yourself, but do not relinquish it simply because someone else is not sure of you.
—Stewart Edward White (1873–1946) American Adventure Writer, Conservationist
Between religion’s “this is” and poetry’s “but suppose this is,” there must always be some kind of tension, until the possible and the actual meet at infinity.
—Northrop Frye
Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
—Vittorio Alfieri (1749–1803) Italian Poet, Dramatist
A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them, for they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
The quickest way to change your attitude toward pain is to accept the fact that everything that happens to us has been designed for our spiritual growth.
—M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American Psychiatrist, Author
Greatness of soul consists not so much in soaring high and in pressing forward, as in knowing how to adapt and limit oneself.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
The primary joy of life is acceptance, approval, the sense of appreciation and companionship of our human comrades. Many men do not understand that the need for fellowship is really as deep as the need for food, and so they go through life accepting many substitutes for genuine, warm, simple relatedness.
—Joshua L. Liebman (1907–48) American Rabbi, Author
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