Quotes about resilience help children understand that life is filled with challenges that can be overcome and that the circumstances of a person’s life can improve.
Resilience is the ability to meet and overcome adversity in ways that maintain or promote well-being. It incorporates attributes like grit, persistence, initiative, and determination.
Parents and teachers build resilience when they gently push young people to the edges of their intellectual, emotional, social, and physical comfort zones. When adults support and encourage youth as they take risks, face obstacles, and grow from failure, young people learn how to bounce back from life’s ups and downs.
Quotes about resilience that focus on how we grow from adversity can help children see difficulties and hardships from new perspectives. Wise people from throughout history have talked about the importance of resilience, from Winston Churchill to Christopher Reeve. Research shows that resilience is one of eight core abilities that drive successful kids.
There are hundreds of memorable quotes that help children become aware of their own resilience. When parents and teachers use these quotes to engage children in conversations about the big and small challenges they overcome every day, kids better understand themselves and others. They begin to believe in their own abilities. Children see that bravery, determination, flexibility, and grit are part of resilience and how these internal strengths enrich their lives.
This article is the fourth of a nine-part series on how adults can promote learning and development using inspiring quotes for kids. You may wish to read the introductory article to learn how the collection of 200 quotes are related to The Compass Advantage, a framework for positive youth development.
The following quotes about resilience and inner strength are short, simple, and memorable. Children from elementary through high school will find meaning in these quotes appropriate to their level of development and understanding.
25 Kid-Friendly Quotes About Resilience and Inner Strength
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston S. Churchill
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
The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.
Sir James Matthew Barrier
I’m always perpetually out of my comfort zone.
Tory Burch
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
All things which greatly hurt me greatly teach me.
Karen Salmansohn
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
Theodore Roosevelt
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
Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.
Julie Andrews
A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
Christopher Reeve
It always seems impossible until it’s done.
Nelson Mandela
You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.
Tina Fey
It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.
J.K. Rowling
Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.
Oliver Goldsmith
Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves – and be free.
Cesar Chavez
I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.
Louisa May Alcott
What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity.
J. Sidlow Baxter
Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.
Babe Ruth
The future doesn’t belong to the light-hearted. It belongs to the brave.
Ronald Reagan
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
The very things that hold you down are going to lift you up.
Timothy Mouse in Dumbo
It is being honest about my pain that makes me invincible.
Nayyirah Waheed
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
Maya Angelou
Use pain as a stepping stone, not a camp ground.
Alan Cohen
Fear of failure is the fuel of achievement. If you weren’t afraid to fail, you probably wouldn’t be highly motivated to work at the level that most of us have to work at to do well.
Ruth Simmons
Resilience Quotes: Discussion Starters
The following discussion starters are just a few of many that can be used by parents, teachers, and after-school program leaders to engage children with quotes about resilience and inner strength.
- What is resilience?
- What are your favorite quotes about resilience from the list? Why?
- Describe a person you know or have learned about who overcame an obstacle or challenge in his or her life? What do you most admire about that person? Why?
- How does the ability to be resilient affect the quality of our lives?
- What are the positives and negatives of being resilient? When is it important to feel vulnerable, afraid, and reach out to others for support?
- What skills do to you possess that help you be resilient? (bravery, determination, flexibility, grit, initiative, perseverance, self-confidence) What skills would you like to improve?
- How do people learn to develop resilience?
Resilience in Action
- In what ways could your resilience positively help other people?
- What problems in the world, such as those related to poverty and abuse, would resilience help contribute to healing and well-being?
Additional Activities and the Wisdom Archive
There are many fun activities using quotes that can become learning opportunities for children. One activity is to have children develop their own quote that might inspire others. They could choose one of the abilities in the Compass Advantage on which to focus their original quote. Quotes can become artwork to be posted at home or school.
Children can be invited to think about other human values, like humor, tolerance, justice, respect, optimism, etc. They can search the Wisdom Archive, a wonderful quote search engine, for quotations that speak to them. A listing can be compiled of quotes with the most meaning, or posters can be created for home or school. Ideas are only limited by children’s imagination!
Articles in the “Quotes for Kids” Series
Quotes for Kids That Promote Healthy Development (Series Introduction)
Quotes About Curiosity That Inspire Kids’ Life-Long Learning (Curiosity)
Motivational Quotes for Kids That Help Build Positive Relationships (Sociability)
Quotes About Resilience That Foster Children’s Determination and Self-Confidence (Resilience)
Self-Awareness Quotes That Help Kids Explore Their Inner Selves (Self-Awareness)
Integrity Quotes That Teach Kids the Importance of Character (Integrity)
Quotes about Goals That Motivate Kids Toward Success (Resourcefulness)
Creativity Quotes That Inspire Kids’ Inner Genius (Creativity)
Kindness Quotes That Teach Kids to Care (Empathy)
Published: May 21, 2018
