Quotes about difficulty (1115 quotes, page 11)

“For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize; they wondered originally at the obvious difficulties, then advanced little by little and stated difficulties about the greater matters, e.g. about the phenomena of the moon and those of the sun and of the stars, and about the genesis of the universe. And a man who is puzzled and wonders thinks himself ignorant (whence even the lover of myth is in a sense a lover of Wisdom, for the myth is composed of wonders); therefore since they philosophized order to escape from ignorance, evidently they were pursuing science in order to know, and not for any utilitarian end.”

Aristotle book Metaphysics

Metaphysics by Aristotle – Book 1, ClassicalWisdom.com
The second sentence is in Metaphysics A 2, 928<sup>b</sup> 17–20, Aristotle: Metaphysics Beta: Symposium Aristotelicum, Michel Crubellier & Andre´ Laks, eds. (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 4.
Metaphysics
Variant: [And] one who experiences a difficulty and who feels wonder thinks that he does not understand..., so that, if it is to escape ignorance that they have practised philosophy, then it is clearly for the sake of knowing, and not for any practical purpose, that they have pursued understanding.

Sun , Star , Universe , Thinking

“During all those years of experimentation and research, I never once made a discovery. All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention, pure and simple. I would construct a theory and work on its lines until I found it was untenable. Then it would be discarded at once and another theory evolved. This was the only possible way for me to work out the problem. … I speak without exaggeration when I say that I have constructed 3,000 different theories in connection with the electric light, each one of them reasonable and apparently likely to be true. Yet only in two cases did my experiments prove the truth of my theory. My chief difficulty was in constructing the carbon filament.... Every quarter of the globe was ransacked by my agents, and all sorts of the queerest materials used, until finally the shred of bamboo, now utilized by us, was settled upon.”

Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman

On his years of research in developing the electric light bulb, as quoted in "Talks with Edison" by George Parsons Lathrop in Harper's magazine, Vol. 80 (February 1890), p. 425.
Variant:
Through all the years of experimenting and research, I never once made a discovery. I start where the last man left off. … All my work was deductive, and the results I achieved were those of invention pure and simple.
As quoted in Makers of the Modern World : The Lives of Ninety-two Writers, Artists, Scientists, Statesmen, Inventors, Philosophers, Composers, and Other Creators who Formed the Pattern of Our Century (1955) by Louis Untermeyer, p. 227.
1800s

Light , Truth , Problem , Way

“Thus we see that the second and third children have a very good chance to live through the first year. Children arriving later have less and less chance, until the twelfth has hardly any chance at all to live twelve months. This does not complete the case, however, for those who care to go farther into the subject will find that many of those who live for a year die before they reach the age of five. Many, perhaps, will think it idle to go farther in demonstrating the immorality of large families, but since there is still an abundance of proof at hand, it may be offered for the sake of those who find difficulty in adjusting old-fashioned ideas to the facts. The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it. The same factors which create the terrible infant mortality rate, and which swell the death rate of children between the ages of one and five, operate even more extensively to lower the health rate of the surviving members.”

Margaret Sanger book Woman and the New Race

Source: Woman and the New Race, (1922), Chapter 5, "The Wickedness of Creating Large Families."

Family , Chance , Children , Health

“It has always occurred to my mind that many difficulties touching Miracles might be reconciled, if men would only take the trouble to agree upon the nature of the phenomenon which they call Miracle.”

Charles Babbage Passages from the life of a philosopher

That writers do not always mean the same thing when treating of miracles is perfectly clear; because what may appear a miracle to the unlearned is to the better instructed only an effect produced by some unknown law hitherto unobserved. So that the idea of miracle is in some respect dependent upon the opinion of man. Much of this confusion has arisen from the definition of Miracle given in Hume's celebrated Essay, namely, that it is the "violation of a law of nature." Now a miracle is not necessarily a violation of any law of nature, and it involves no physical absurdity. As Brown well observes, "the laws of nature surely are not violated when a new antecedent is followed by a new consequent ; they are violated only when the antecedent, being exactly the same, a different consequent is the result;" so that a miracle has nothing in its nature inconsistent with our belief of the uniformity of nature. All that we see in a miracle is an effect which is new to our observation, and whose cause is concealed. The cause may be beyond the sphere of our observation, and would be thus beyond the familiar sphere of nature; but this does not make the event a violation of any law of nature. The limits of man's observation lie within very narrow boundaries, and it would be arrogance to suppose that the reach of man's power is to form the limits of the natural world. The universe offers daily proof of the existence of power of which we know nothing, but whose mighty agency nevertheless manifestly appears in the most familiar works of creation. And shall we deny the existence of this mighty energy simply because it manifests itself in delegated and feeble subordination to God's omnipotence?
"Passages from the life of a philosopher", Appendix: Miracle. Note (A)
Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)

Nature , Men

“It is only firmly maintaining the national united front that the difficulties can be overcome, the enemy defeated and a new China built. This is beyond all doubt. At the same time, every party and group in the united front must preserve its ideological, political and organizational independence; this holds good for the Kuomintang, the Communist Party or any other party or group.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

The Selected Readings of Mao Tse-Tung, pp. 144
Role of the Chinese Communist Party (October 1938)
Original: (zh-CN) 坚持民族统一战线才能克服困难，战胜敌人，建设新中国，这是毫无疑义的。但是在同时，必须保持加入统一战线中的任何党派在思想上、政治上和组织上的独立性，不论是国民党也好，共产党也好，其他党派也好，都是这样。

Time

“Another problem with godheads, Johnny reflects, is that they can’t quite understand how anyone could not believe their shit. (He knows this because he started out as one, although he lost his faith before his balls dropped.) Consequently, they have immense difficulty in grasping, at an intuitive level, that someone who used to be one of them might no longer be completely in tune with their ideology.”

Charles Stross The Laundry Files

Source: The Laundry Files, The Apocalypse Codex (2012), Chapter 14, “Appointment in Samarra” (p. 291)

Problem , Faith , Understanding

“The spirit of America is to help everybody and injure nobody. We can be in a position to help only by unifying the American nation, building it up, making it strong, keeping it independent, using its inclination to help and its disclination to injure. Those who cast in their lot with this country can be true to the land of their origin only by first being true to America. When the public sees and realizes that racial groups here are first of all devoted to the interests of this country, there will be little difficulty in securing here the present needed help and assistance for the countries of the old world.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

1920s, The Genius of America (1924)

Country , Strong , Help , World

“Let there be no doubt that our present rate of inflation is the main cause of our economic difficulties. There never has been a more mistaken piece of economic analysis than the view that we should accept inflation to avoid unemployment. Inflation today, so far from being an alternative to unemployment, is its main cause. If our rate of cost increase is allowed to continue close to twice that of the average for the developed world it will increasingly price us out of world markets. Employers…will have to restrict their activities and still more their labour force in response to mounting and uncontainable wage and salary bills.”

Roy Jenkins (1920–2003) British politician, historian and writer

Hugh Anderson Memorial lecture at the Cambridge Union (28 February 1975), quoted in The Times (1 March 1975), p. 2
1970s

World

“Inflation in Britain is at an unacceptable level. It is now mostly home-induced and wage-induced. It is moving well out of line with that of the rest of the world. If it goes on doing so it will ruin us as a nation, both economically and politically. It is of a different order from any of our other difficulties. It is, quite simply, our biggest menace since Hitler.”

Roy Jenkins (1920–2003) British politician, historian and writer

Hugh Anderson Memorial lecture at the Cambridge Union (28 February 1975), quoted in The Times (1 March 1975), p. 2
1970s

World , Home

“The great difficulty of Christianity is that many of the Bible revelations seem to clash with our sense of justice and right.”

William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1838–1903) British politician

The Religious Tendencies of the Age(1860)

Sense , Justice

“Conditions have greatly changed in Great Britain since the end of the war owing to the existence of full employment. Negotiations about wages between the two sides of industry now take place in entirely different circumstances. There is no reserve of labour to compete for jobs. … If wages rise faster than productivity the increases in cost can usually be passed on in increased selling prices. There is thus in the economic system very much less check on the upward movement of money wages. …if wages at home rise unchecked, it is more likely in general that exports will gradually cease to be competitive and there will be balance of payments difficulties. These can be met, in the end, by devaluation. A succession of devaluations completely undermines confidence in any currency. … It is clear that a very difficult problem faces a country such as ours, which wishes to maintain full employment and yet to avoid the undoubted evils of rising prices and balance of payments difficulties abroad.”

Hugh Gaitskell (1906–1963) British politician

Memorandum, 'Wages and Prices and Full Employment' (1 December 1950), quoted in Correlli Barnett, The Lost Victory: British Dreams, British Realities: 1945–1950 (London: Pan, 1996), pp. 350–352
Chancellor of the Exchequer

Money , Home , Confidence , Country

“How, it may be asked, are we to make ourselves capable of sharing in this great work? Well, there is no mystery as to the qualifications which are needed by one who aspires to be a helper; the difficulty is not in learning what they are, but in developing them in oneself. To some extent they have been already incidentally described, but it is nevertheless as well that they should be set out fully and categorically. Single-mindedness… Perfect self-control… Calmness. This is another most important point - the absence of all worry and depression. Much of the work consists in soothing those who are disturbed, and cheering those who are in sorrow; and how can a helper do that work if his own aura is vibrating with constant fuss and worry, or grey with the deadly gloom that comes from perpetual depression? Nothing is more hopelessly fatal to occult progress or usefulness than our nineteenth century habit of ceaselessly worrying over trifles - of eternally making mountains out of molehills…. Knowledge…. while the slightest taint of selfishness remains in a man, he is not yet fit to be entrusted……..”

Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854–1934) English theosophist

Source: Invisible Helpers (1915), Ch. 14

Selfishness , Mountain , Learning , Knowledge

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree. When it was first said that the sun stood still and the world turned round, the common sense of mankind declared the doctrine false; but the old saying of Vox populi, vox Dei, as every philosopher knows, cannot be trusted in science. Reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a simple and imperfect eye to one complex and perfect can be shown to exist, each grade being useful to its possessor, as is certainly the case; if further, the eye ever varies and the variations be inherited, as is likewise certainly the case; and if such variations should be useful to any animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, should not be considered as subversive of the theory. How a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us more than how life itself originated; but I may remark that, as some of the lowest organisms, in which nerves cannot be detected, are capable of perceiving light, it does not seem impossible that certain sensitive elements in their sarcode should become aggregated and developed into nerves, endowed with this special sensibilites.”

Charles Darwin book On the Origin of Species (1859)

On the Origin of Species (1859)

Imagination , Light , Sun , Nature

“It would doubtless be best for us to remain permanently on a good footing with England, even, if practicable, to be in alliance with her, but that is quite out of the question so long as this Power only wants to exploit us and in addition has the effrontery to make difficulties for us in our colonial policy everywhere. The astoundingly mean and shameless attacks made against the Kaiser by the English press will, one hopes, never be forgotten.”

Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) Prussian Field Marshal

Waldersee in his diary, 12 January 1896

Making love , Hope , Question

“I now, my Lords, frankly declare that I resume office unequivocally and solely for this reason—that I will not abandon my Sovereign in a situation of difficulty and distress, and especially when a demand is made upon her Majesty, with which I think she ought not to comply—a demand, in my opinion, my Lords, inconsistent with her personal honour, and which, if acquiesced in, would make her reign liable to all the changes and variations of political parties, and render her domestic life one constant scene of unhappiness and discomfort.”

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (1779–1848) British Whig statesman

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1839/may/14/ministerial-explanations#column_1015 in the House of Lords (14 May 1839) during the Bedchamber Crisis

Personality , Thinking , Life , Making love

“There is one point more which has been troubling me very much of late and one which I want you to think carefully and that is the question of Hindu-Mohamedan unity. I have devoted most of my time during the last six months to the study of Muslim history and Muslim Law and I am inclined to think, it is neither possible nor practicable. Assuming and admitting the sincerity of the Mohamedan leaders in the Non-cooperation movement, I think their religion provides an effective bar to anything of the kind. You remember the conversation, I reported to you in Calcutta, which I had with Hakim Ajmalkhan and Dr. Kitchlew. There is no finer Mohamedan in Hindustan than Hakimsaheb but can any other Muslim leader override the Quran? I can only hope that my reading of Islamic Law is incorrect, and nothing would relieve me more than to be convinced that it is so. But if it is right then it comes to this that although we can unite against the British we cannot do so to rule Hindustan on British lines, we cannot do so to rule Hindustan on democratic lines. What is then the remedy? I am not afraid of seven crores in Hindustan but I think the seven crores of Hindustan plus the armed hosts of Afghanistan, Central Asia, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Turkey will be irresistible. I do honestly and sincerely believe in the necessity or desirability of Hindu-Muslim unity. I am also fully prepared to trust the Muslim leaders, but what about the injunctions of the Quran and Hadis? The leaders cannot override them. Are we then doomed? I hope not. I hope learned mind and wise head will find some way out of this difficulty.”

Lala Lajpat Rai (1865–1928) Indian author and politician

in B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or The Partition of India (1946)

Religion , Study , History , Law

“Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over us by the supreme ordinance of a parental Guardian and Legislator, who knows us better than we know ourselves, as he loves us better too. Pater ipse colendi haud facilem esse viam voluit. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Volume iii, p. 453
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Love , Making love , Parent

“Two things are essential to the astrologer, namely, a bag of cowries and an almanac, When any one comes to consult him he quietly sits down, facing the sun, on a plank seat or mat, murmuring some mantrams or sacred verses, opens his bag of cowries and pours them on the floor. With his right hand he moves them slowly round and round, solemnly inciting meanwhile a stanza or two in praise of his guru or teacher and of his deity, invoking their help. He then stops and explains what, lie has been doing, at the same time taking a handful of cowries from the heap and placing them on one side. In front is a diagram drawn with chalk on tire floor and consisting of twelve compartments. Before commencing operations with the diagram he selects three or five of the cowries highest up in tho heap and places them in a line on the right-hand side. These represent Ganapati (the Belly God, the remover of difficulties), the sun, the planet Jupiter, Sarasvati (the Goddess of speech), and his own Guru or preceptor. To all of those the astrologor gives due obeisance, touching his ears and the ground three times with both hands. The cowries are next arranged in the compartments of tho diagram and are moved about from compartment to compartment by the astrologer, who quotes meanwhile tho authority on which ho makes such moves. Finally he explains the result, and ends with again worshipping the deified cowries who were witnessing the operation as spectators.”

William Logan (author) book Malabar Manual

Malabar Manual, Page 142 https://archive.org/details/MalabarLogan/page/n154
Malabar Manual (1887)

God , Time , Sun , Help

“Allow me, excellent Lucilius, to utter a still bolder word: if any goods could be greater than others, I should prefer those which seem harsh to those which are mild and alluring, and should pronounce them greater. For it is more of an accomplishment to break one’s way through difficulties than to keep joy within bounds.”

Seneca the Younger book Epistulae morales ad Lucilium

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXVI: On Various Aspects of Virtue

Way , Joy

“I propose that where private enterprise has been proved to be palpably unable, under present conditions…to solve our national difficulties and fulfil our national needs unaided by the State, the administrative and financial resources of the nation as a whole should be made responsible for setting on foot and supporting those developments in town and country which would bring into fruitful activity our undeveloped resources and opportunities.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in Bangor (17 January 1935), quoted in The Times (18 January 1935), p. 7
Later life

Support , Country

“I will mitigate the impact of a no-deal Brexit on you and step in to help smooth those short-term difficulties. If we could do it for the bankers in the financial crisis, we can do it for our fisherman, farmers and small businesses now.”

Jeremy Hunt (1966) British politician

Tory leadership: Jeremy Hunt sets 30 September 'no-deal deadline' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48819260 BBC News (1 July 2019)
2019

Business , Help

“Some one will say, Does he not know without a monitor both what our difficulties are, and what is meet for our interest, so that it seems in some measure superfluous to solicit him by our prayers, as if he were winking, or even sleeping, until aroused by the sound of our voice? Those who argue thus attend not to the end for which the Lord taught us to pray. It was not so much for his sake as for ours. … It is very much for our interest to be constantly supplicating him; first, that our heart may always be inflamed with a serious and ardent desire of seeking, loving and serving him, while we accustom ourselves to have recourse to him as a sacred anchor in every necessity; secondly, that no desires, no longing whatever, of which we are ashamed to make him the witness, may enter our minds, while we learn to place all our wishes in his sight, and thus pour out our heart before him; and, lastly, that we may be prepared to receive all his benefits with true gratitude and thanksgiving, while our prayers remind us that they proceed from his hand.”

John Calvin book Institutes of the Christian Religion

Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 3
Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536; 1559)

Sleep , Gratitude , Heart , Learning

“My philosophy is normal human orthodox philosophy, such as has come down from the Indians through the Greeks, to Spinoza. It is simply not Protestant philosophy. The problems of Protestant philosophy do not exist for me: I regard them as products of a confusion of thought, of a heresy. Catholic philosophy differs from the normal only in that it accepts sacred history as well as natural history as the true account of the facts: but when the facts are agreed upon, one way or another, philosophy has no real difficulty in discovering what to say. It has said everything essential already. To invent a philosophy would be not to have understood.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

George Santayana, in his letter to John Boynton Priestley, 15 September 1924
S - Z, George Santayana

Way , Problem , History , Nature

“In lectures, it is important that you lecture plain. We are interested in the smartest students, and we really should take care of those who have most difficulties with understanding certain concepts. I try to balance it. You know what? In lecturing, Jerzy Vetulani really helped me – listening to his lectures, I learned how to teach correctly, so that the students did not fall asleep after fifteen minutes.”

Jerzy Vetulani (1936–2017) Polish scientist

Marek Sanak, geneticist and molecular biologist, friend and disciple of Vetulani. Kobos, Andrzej (2012). Po drogach uczonych. 5. Polska Akademia Umiejętności. p. 334. ISBN 978-83-7676-127-5.

Understanding , Help , Learning

“I think the harder the life, the finer the type, yes, and I certainly felt this about the Bedu. When I went there, I felt that the difficulty was going to be living up physically to the hardships of their life. But, on the contrary, it was the difficulty of meeting their high standards: their generosity, their patience, their loyalty, their courage and all these things. And they had a quality of nobility.”

Wilfred Thesiger (1910–2003) British explorer

Answer to “Do you think that hardship and, indeed, suffering bring nobility?”
Interview with Sir David Attenborough first broadcast on Channel 4 in August 1994.
Wilfred Thesiger in Africa, edited by Chris Morton and Philip Grover (2010), p. 82.

Courage , Life , Thinking , Patience

“There is only one possible settlement – war! It has got to come … The difficulty is in the occasion and not the job itself, that is very easily done and I think nothing of the bogies and difficulties of settling South Africa afterwards. You will find a very different tone and temper when the center of unrest is dealt with.”

Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner (1854–1925) British statesman and colonial administrator

Milner as recorded by Percy FitzPatrick, cited in Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa, 2008, Martin Meredith, p. 374.

War , Thinking

“Amin is a splendid man by any standards and is held in great respect and affection by his British colleagues. … He is tough and fearless and in the judgment of everybody … completely reliable. Against this he is not very bright and will probably find difficulty in dealing with the administrative side of command.”

Idi Amin (1925–2003) third president of Uganda

OG Griffith, 1969 despatch on Amin's promotion to major, released by Public Record Office. Amin hailed as splendid, but not very bright, June 23, 2000, Richard Norton Taylor, The Guardian.

“Keitel, Jodl and Warlimont had never been in the war…. Their lack of fighting experience tended to make them underrate practical difficulties, and encourage Hitler to believe that things could be done that were quite impossible…”

Walter Warlimont (1894–1976) German general

Field Marshal von Manstein wrote in an appraisal of General Warlimont's military capabilities

Fight , War , Making love

“The hardest theme in science fiction is that of the alien. The simplest solution of all is in fact quite profound—that the real difficulty lies not in understanding what is alien, but in understanding what is self.”

Greg Bear (1951) American writer best known for science fiction

We are all aliens to each other, all different and divided. We are even aliens to ourselves at different stages of our lives. Do any of us remember precisely what it was like to be a baby?
"Introduction to 'Plague of Conscience'", The Collected Stories of Greg Bear (2002)

Self-confidence , Science , Understanding

“These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by the scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

Letter to John Quincy Adams (19 January 1780)

Animals , Life , Time , Heart

“The difficulty in understanding the Russian is that we do not take cognizance of the fact that he is not a European, but an Asiatic, and therefore thinks deviously. We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinaman or a Japanese, and from what I have seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them, except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. In addition to his other Asiatic characteristics, the Russian have no regard for human life and is an all out son of bitch, barbarian, and chronic drunk.”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

Statement (8 August 1945), as quoted in General Patton : A Soldier's Life (2002) by Stanley P. Hirshson, p. 650
Source: [Charles M. Province, The unknown Patton, https://books.google.com/books?id=yXshAAAAMAAJ&q=The+difficulty+in+understanding+the+Russian+is+that+we+do+not+take+cognizance+of+the+fact+that+he+is+not+a+European,+but+an+Asiatic,+and+therefore+thinks+deviously.+We+can+no+more+understand+a+Russian+than+a+Chinese+or+a+Japanese,+and+from+what+I+have+seen+of+them,+I+have+no+particular+desire+to+understand+them+except+to+ascertain+how+much+lead+or+iron+it+takes+to+kill+them.+In+addition+to+his+other+amiable+characteristics,+the+Russian+has+no+regard+for+human+life+and+they+are+all+out+sons-of-bitches,+barbarians,+and+chronic+drunks.&dq=The+difficulty+in+understanding+the+Russian+is+that+we+do+not+take+cognizance+of+the+fact+that+he+is+not+a+European,+but+an+Asiatic,+and+therefore+thinks+deviously.+We+can+no+more+understand+a+Russian+than+a+Chinese+or+a+Japanese,+and+from+what+I+have+seen+of+them,+I+have+no+particular+desire+to+understand+them+except+to+ascertain+how+much+lead+or+iron+it+takes+to+kill+them.+In+addition+to+his+other+amiable+characteristics,+the+Russian+has+no+regard+for+human+life+and+they+are+all+out+sons-of-bitches,+barbarians,+and+chronic+drunks.&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAmoVChMItdm-0viRyQIVyeQmCh2khgS9, 1983, Hippocrene Books, 978-0-88254-641-4, 99]
Source: [English Teacher X, Vodkaberg: Nine Years in Russia, https://books.google.com/books?id=ZR2TBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2&dq=The+difficulty+in+understanding+the+Russian+is+that+we+do+not+take+cognizance+of+the+fact+that+he+is+not+a+European,+but+an+Asiatic,+and+therefore+thinks+deviously.+We+can+no+more+understand+a+Russian+than+a+Chinese+or+a+Japanese,+and+from+what+I+have+seen+of+them,+I+have+no+particular+desire+to+understand+them+except+to+ascertain+how+much+lead+or+iron+it+takes+to+kill+them.+In+addition+to+his+other+amiable+characteristics,+the+Russian+has+no+regard+for+human+life+and+they+are+all+out+sons-of-bitches,+barbarians,+and+chronic+drunks.&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAGoVChMItdm-0viRyQIVyeQmCh2khgS9#v=onepage&q=The%20difficulty%20in%20understanding%20the%20Russian%20is%20that%20we%20do%20not%20take%20cognizance%20of%20the%20fact%20that%20he%20is%20not%20a%20European%2C%20but%20an%20Asiatic%2C%20and%20therefore%20thinks%20deviously.%20We%20can%20no%20more%20understand%20a%20Russian%20than%20a%20Chinese%20or%20a%20Japanese%2C%20and%20from%20what%20I%20have%20seen%20of%20them%2C%20I%20have%20no%20particular%20desire%20to%20understand%20them%20except%20to%20ascertain%20how%20much%20lead%20or%20iron%20it%20takes%20to%20kill%20them.%20In%20addition%20to%20his%20other%20amiable%20characteristics%2C%20the%20Russian%20has%20no%20regard%20for%20human%20life%20and%20they%20are%20all%20out%20sons-of-bitches%2C%20barbarians%2C%20and%20chronic%20drunks.&f=false, English Teacher X, 2–, GGKEY:2DPNH0X04GB]
Source: [Evi Martyn, Captain Philip Markopoulos a Patton's Hero: An Incredible True Story When Fate and Destiny Outpower Weapons, https://books.google.com/books?id=IdkUq5EixE8C&pg=PA176&dq=The+difficulty+in+understanding+the+Russian+is+that+we+do+not+take+cognizance+of+the+fact+that+he+is+not+a+European,+but+an+Asiatic,+and+therefore+thinks+deviously.+We+can+no+more+understand+a+Russian+than+a+Chinese+or+a+Japanese,+and+from+what+I+have+seen+of+them,+I+have+no+particular+desire+to+understand+them+except+to+ascertain+how+much+lead+or+iron+it+takes+to+kill+them.+In+addition+to+his+other+amiable+characteristics,+the+Russian+has+no+regard+for+human+life+and+they+are+all+out+sons-of-bitches,+barbarians,+and+chronic+drunks.&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAWoVChMItdm-0viRyQIVyeQmCh2khgS9#v=onepage&q=The%20difficulty%20in%20understanding%20the%20Russian%20is%20that%20we%20do%20not%20take%20cognizance%20of%20the%20fact%20that%20he%20is%20not%20a%20European%2C%20but%20an%20Asiatic%2C%20and%20therefore%20thinks%20deviously.%20We%20can%20no%20more%20understand%20a%20Russian%20than%20a%20Chinese%20or%20a%20Japanese%2C%20and%20from%20what%20I%20have%20seen%20of%20them%2C%20I%20have%20no%20particular%20desire%20to%20understand%20them%20except%20to%20ascertain%20how%20much%20lead%20or%20iron%20it%20takes%20to%20kill%20them.%20In%20addition%20to%20his%20other%20amiable%20characteristics%2C%20the%20Russian%20has%20no%20regard%20for%20human%20life%20and%20they%20are%20all%20out%20sons-of-bitches%2C%20barbarians%2C%20and%20chronic%20drunks.&f=false, 2009, AuthorHouse, 978-1-4389-8409-4, 176–]
Source: http://www.military-history.us/2014/03/now-would-be-a-good-time-for-a-bit-of-revisionism/

Bitch , Life , Thinking , Understanding

“Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy…. I have not yet had enough experience with women. What we were taught about them in our youth is quite wrong, that is sure, it was quite contrary to nature, and one must try to learn from experience. It would be very pleasant if everybody were good, and the world were good, etc.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

yes - but it seems to me that we see more and more that we are not good, no more than the world in general, of which we are an atom - and the world no more good than we are. One may try one's best, or act carelessly, the result is always different from what one really wanted. But whether the result be better or worse, fortunate or unfortunate, it is better to do something than to do nothing. If only one is wary of becoming a prim, self-righteous prig - as Uncle Vincent calls it - one may be even as good as one likes.
In his letter to Theo, from Nuenen, c. 9 March 1884, http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/14/359.htm
1880s, 1884

Learning , Nature , Youth , World

“A youth nursed up in wintry whirlwinds, in desolate darkness and difficulty, that he may step forth at last from his stormy Scandinavia, strong as a true man, as a god: a Christian Odin,—a right Thor once more, with his thunder-hammer, to smite asunder ugly enough Jotuns and Giant-monsters!”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Priest

Strong , God , Youth

“Men who fuck easily, and can give themselves without difficulty, have only a very diminished creative potency... Look at Leonardo da Vinci, Hitler, Napoleon, they all left their mark on their times, and they were more or less impotent.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Quote from Entretiens avec Salvador Dali, Alain Bosquet, 1966; as cited in The shameful life of Salvador Dali, Ian Gibson, New York / London, Norton & Co, 1997
Quotes of Salvador Dali, 1961 - 1970

Time , Men

“I, therefore, did learn a lesson: The female mind is capable of understanding analytic geometry. Those people who have for years been insisting (in the face of all obvious evidence to the contrary) that the male and female are equally capable of rational thought may have something. The difficulty may just be that we have never yet discovered a way to communicate with the female mind. If it is done in the right way, you may be able to get something out of it.”

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist

address " What is Science? http://www.fotuva.org/feynman/what_is_science.html", presented at the fifteenth annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association, in New York City (1966), published in The Physics Teacher, volume 7, issue 6 (1969), p. 313-320

Understanding , People , Learning , Communication

“Perhaps the real difficulty facing anyone seeking intellectuals at the highest political levels in England is that the intellectual agenda which drove ideologically-configured political movements in continental Europe was quite absent in London.”

Tony Judt (1948–2010) British historian

Source: Thinking the Twentieth Century (2012), Ch. 2: London and Language: English Writer

“Do yours the right way. If you’re young and wondering whether you should wait, whether you should just give in, become a live-in harlot/mimbo and do it the world’s way. If you’re wondering whether all of the mocking, the ridicule, the incredible difficulty of saving yourself for your spouse is worth it, let me tell you without a doubt that it is. Your wedding can be the most memorable day and night of your life… or just another party.”

Steven Crowder (1987) American actor

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/waiting-till-the-wedding-night-getting-married-the-right-way

Night , Waiting , Wedding , Way

“Wisdom and contrivance are shown in overcoming difficulties, so there is no place for them in a Being for whom no difficulties exist”

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) British philosopher and political economist

pages 176-177; Early Modern Texts page 16
Three Essays on Religion (posthumous publication), Theism, Part II: Attributes

Wisdom

“The difficulty that we have, and I don't mean to be rude here, is that we have a president who is a pathological liar. So, could it be true? I guess it could be. Is it likely to be true? Probably not. And I think what happens in our own country and around the world, people don't believe much of what Trump says, and when you lie all the time, the problem is sometimes when you're telling the truth that people are not gonna believe you.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Today, NBC, quoted in * 2020-01-10

Sen. Bernie Sanders slams Trump as 'pathological liar'

Adam Edelman

NBC News

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/sen-bernie-sanders-slams-trump-pathological-liar-n1113416
2010s, 2020

Time , Country , People , Truth

“We may not stop until we have done our part to fashion a world in which there shall be some share of fellowship; which shall be better than a den of thieves. Let us not disguise the difficulties; and, above all, let us not content ourselves with nobel aspirations, counsels of perfection, and self-righteous advice to others. We shall need the wisdom of the serpent; we shall have to be content with short steps; we shall be obliged to give and take; we shall face the strongest passions of mankind — our own not the least; and in the end we shall have fabricated an imperfect instrument. But we shall not wholly have failed; we shall have gone forward, if we bring to our task a pure and chastened spirit, patience, understanding, sympathy, forbearance, generosity, fortitude, and, above all, an inflexible determination. The history of man has just begun; in the aeons which lie before him lie limitless hope or limitless despair. The choice is his; the present choice is ours. It is worth the trial.”

Learned Hand (1872–1961) American legal scholar, Court of Appeals judge

"A Pledge of Allegiance" - speech for "I Am an American Day" Central Park, New York, New York. (20 May 1945) Hand credited H. G. Wells with inspiring some of the ideas expressed in this speech.
Extra-judicial writings

Despair , Understanding , History , Hope

“The shaping influence of economic change can of course be distinguished, as most notably in the period with which this book is concerned. But the difficulty lies in estimating the final importance of a factor which never, in practice, appears in isolation.”

Raymond Williams book Culture and Society

Culture and Society (1958) p. 280

Appearance , Books , Change

“The relation between the social sciences and the natural sciences has long been fraught with difficulties. A minority of social scientists (including some anthropologists) regard their activity as an extension, or a branch, of biological research. Others argue that the social sciences ought to be sciences of the same kind as the natural sciences; that they should strive after the same kind of precision and the same kind of parsimonious clarity that can be achieved for instance in chemistry.”

Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1962) Norwegian social anthropologist and professor

Source: What is Anthropology? (2nd ed., 2017), Ch. 7 : Nature

Science , Relation ships , Nature

“A good deal of our misconception with regard to the difficulty of the inquiry lies in ourselves that ideas of multitude connected with the peculiar customs of the race that have yet to be ascertained, are at the bottom of the inability of that race to follow our numeration.”

Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner (1840–1899) British orientalist

Writings of Dr. Leitner, Chapter: On the Science of Language and Ethnography, p. 173

Idea

“After a storm comes a calm.
Even a pitch-dark night is bound to turn into a red dawn.
If we use wisdom and persistence to solve every difficulty we encounter.
A rosy future will be awaiting us.”

Deng Feng-Zhou (1949) Chinese poet, Local history writer, Taoist Neidan academics and Environmentalist.

(zh-TW) 暴雨烏雲久必晴，夜深輾轉是天明。
面臨困境憑心力，度過難關一片清。

"Patience" (忍耐)

Source: Deng Feng-Zhou, "Deng Feng-Zhou Classical Chinese Poetry Anthology". Volume 6, Tainan, 2018: 81.

Future , Wisdom , Night

“Do the best you can with what you have.
Do not worry about water that has gone over the dam.
Difficulties exist to be overcome.”

Ernest King (1878–1956) United States Navy admiral, Chief of Naval Operations

p. 640

Water

“I am a straightforward man, with no crime on my conscience,
But I was accused of being a spy for China
So life, you see, is never a very smooth business
And now the present bristles with difficulties.”

Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) Vietnamese communist leader and first president of Vietnam

"Hard is the Road of Life"
1950's

Business , Life

“The difficulties in princes' business are many and great; but the greatest difficulty, is often in their own mind.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1857), Of Empire

Business

“In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Negotiating

Business

“The difficulty of exercising “social responsibility” illustrates, of course, the great virtue of private competitive enterprise — it forces people to be responsible for their own actions and makes it difficult for them to “exploit” other people for either selfish or unselfish purposes. They can do good—but only at their own expense.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

“A Friedman doctrine‐- The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits” (Sept. 1970)

Selfishness , Making love , People , Exercises

“The prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches. It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain. And when neither their property nor honour is touched, the majority of men live content, and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways. It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavour to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him. That prince is highly esteemed who conveys this impression of himself, and he who is highly esteemed is not easily conspired against; for, provided it is well known that he is an excellent man and revered by his people, he can only be attacked with difficulty.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 19; translated by W. K. Marriot

Courage , Hate , Hope , People

“Despite all the difficulties and severe trials being experienced by the people, the democratic process in the country is acquiring an increasingly broad sweep and an irreversible character. The peoples of Russia are becoming masters of their destiny.”

Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) 1st President of Russia and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR

Appeal to citizens of Russia http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1991-2/the-august-coup/the-august-coup-texts/eltsins-defiance/ to oppose the 1991 coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev. (19 August 1991)
1990s

People , Country

“We simply don’t do optimism or pessimism, we do logistics. That is our calling and duty, neither to stir up false hope nor dash incipient possibility. To work with what we have to achieve what we can, neither over nor understating it. So stating it straight, I don’t know what the outcome of the election will be with the single exception I guess that we will not be talking of a National Government after it. There is still the enormous extent to which the Irish people “trust” the devil they know, and there are as yet insurmountable difficulties for a new party to make revolutionary progress through a corrupted structure.”

Justin Barrett (1971) Irish activist

New Year Message 2020 https://nationalparty.ie/new-year-message-2020/ (January 1, 2020)

Optimism , People , Hope , Falseness

“I need not tell you that the world situation is very serious. That must be apparent to all intelligent people. I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation. Furthermore, the people of this country are distant from the troubled areas of the earth and it is hard for them to comprehend the plight and consequent reactions of the long-suffering peoples, and the effect of those reactions on their governments in connection with our efforts to promote peace in the world.”

George Marshall (1880–1959) US military leader, Army Chief of Staff

The Marshall Plan Speech (1947)

Peace , Country , Intelligence , People

“A serious difficulty in understanding how to educate and regulate the relations of sex arises from the fact that it is the relation of two equal but distinct halves of the human race, and exists in the dual form—male and female. Unless the distinctive characteristics and requirements of each of these equal halves are fully understood, the relation between them cannot be satisfactory.”

Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910) England-born American physician, abolitionist, women's rights activist

p. 8 https://books.google.com/books?id=7VlHAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=snippet&q=regulate&f=false
Essays in Medical Sociology (1899)

Education , Understanding , Sex , Relation ships

“You can't give the average Wall Street CEO really lenient standards of accounting and expect the figures to be good. The accountant is like the referee in soccer. The accountant has to be the adult that prevents the mayhem. Accountants don't want to be the adults because it causes liability, it causes responsibility, it causes difficulty ... they failed us terribly.”

Charlie Munger (1924) American business magnate, lawyer, investor, and philanthropist

[A Conversation with Charlie Munger, Ross School of Business, YouTube, March 22, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pph3Bg8Pihg] (quote at 23:30 of 1:59:58)

“Political friendships are political business transactions and in political, as in economic life, business transactions are most easily and reliably concluded between strong parties The weakling always goes to the wall. A people that lacks a genuine sacrificial spirit or believes that it is not rich enough to keep its armaments in order thereby only betrays that it is played out. I beg you to bear one idea in mind through every difficulty. If anyone should threaten our homestead, we must be ready to the last man.”

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg (1856–1921) German chancellor during World War I

Speech to the Reichstag introducing the Military Bill (April 1913), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany from Defeat to Conquest, 1913–1933 (1945), p. 28

Friendship , Business , Strong , Idea

“The mind unlearns with difficulty what it has long learned.”

Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist

Learning

“Difficulties increase the nearer we get to the goal.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German writer, artist, and politician

“Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.”

Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece

Personality

“Virtue is a ray of the divine Beauty, in which we participate through our nature or through our will, with ease or with difficulty, but always by the grace of God.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 16, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual path, Virtue

God , Beauty , Nature

“Difficulty incites commitment.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La difficoltà incita l'impegno.
Source: prevale.net

“Courage, strength and value of a person are measured by the ability to face up difficulties.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Coraggio, forza e valore di una persona si misurano dalla capacità di affrontare le difficoltà.
Source: prevale.net

Courage

“The beauty of a woman attracts you, her intelligence fascinates you, sympathy intrigues you, but the difficulty in having her seduces you.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La bellezza di una donna ti attrae, la sua intelligenza ti affascina, la simpatia ti incuriosisce, ma la difficoltà ad averla ti seduce.
Source: prevale.net

Beauty , Intelligence

“Each ambition has its difficulties. In life, simple things do not exist.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Ogni ambizione ha le sue difficoltà. Nella vita le cose semplici non esistono.
Source: prevale.net

Life

“One of the greatest difficulties I encounter in my research is that people want to believe that their dreams mean something, but all the research I’m doing seems to indicate just the opposite.”

Connie Willis book Lincoln's Dreams

Source: Lincoln's Dreams (1987), Chapter 4 (pp. 57-58)

People , Dreams

“Preventing and fighting corruption and waste is an important, urgent and long-term task of extreme difficulty and complexity. To enhance the efficiency of the work, timely detection, investigation and handling of offences plays a decisive role.”

Trần Đại Quang (1956–2018) 8th President of Vietnam

"Re-elected President Tran Dai Quang gives media interview" in Nhân Dân https://en.nhandan.vn/politics/domestic/item/4492502-re-elected-president-tran-dai-quang-gives-media-interview.html (26 July 2016)

Time , Decision , Fight

“Reconcile with all the types of fears and learn to forgive yourself in times of difficulty.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Forgiveness , Time , Learning , Fear

“The chief difficulty of the spiritual life is to maintain a simple, qualitative, heavenly position in a complex, quantitative, earthly setting.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2016, La conscience de l’Absolu, Hozhoni, 20, 978-2-37241-020-5]
Spiritual life, Outline

Life

“We persist in regarding ourselves as a great power, capable of everything and only temporarily handicapped by economic difficulties. We are not a great power and never will be again. We are a great nation, but if we continue to behave like a great power we shall soon cease to be a great nation.”

Henry Tizard (1885–1959) British chemist

Memo written as Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Ministry of Defence https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/01/britain-retrenched-island-europe-papers-react-to-brexit-day (1949)

“Of working happily, even in the midst of difficulties,”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

“Living in exile has its difficulties enough.”

Reza Goodary (1988) Mixed martial artist

Source: In the last 6 years, despite many difficulties, I have been able to grow in Thailand. Practicing in professional camps, including Venum, helped me improve my technical level in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). I have been involved in martial arts for 26 years and I plan to continue my professional training in the United States after the end of the COVID-19 epidemic. https://www.irna.ir/news/84454698/ IRNA News, (August 30, 2021)

“There will be tremendous difficulties to surmount whilst trying to arrive at the coming stages...”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter II Planning a Model World

“Our communities must face daily not a few difficulties of an economic order; above all, however, they must be able to react to an inferiority complex in the face of an oppressive Muslim majority, which makes them feel oppressed and can make them think that they are the "infidels."”

Martin Kmetec (1956) Slovenian Catholic archbishop

Source: Benedict XVI's Visit to Turkey: the Context https://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=3827 (November 2006)

Communication , Feeling , Thinking

“Regardless of the difficulties or frustrations you meet, you should think about your initial intention, and then you feel peaceful. For me, I enjoy the game and so I’m doing what I like.”

Peng Shuai (1986) Chinese female tennis player (1986-)

Source: "Peng Shuai: Eyes Ahead" in China Today http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/english/society/2014-11/07/content_650652_2.htm (7 November 2014)

Game , Peace , Thinking , Feeling

“The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.”

John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) British economist

Preface
Variant: Paraphrased variant: The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.
Source: The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936)

Idea

“The law has always had difficulty assimilating the implications, if not the very idea, of scientific evidence. Even the most intelligent lawyers, judges, and juries have customarily found it difficult to understand at first.”

James D. Watson (1928) American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist.

Source: DNA: The Story of the Genetic Revolution (2003/2017), Chapter 11, “Genetic Fingerprinting: DNA’s Day in Court” (p. 300)

Law , Understanding , Intelligence , Idea

“We know that threats and sanctions from the enemy have brought difficulties to the management of the country, but there are also considerable sacred, popular, economic and international capabilities that can help us overcome these challenges.”

Ebrahim Raisi (1960) Iranian president

Source: 5 August 2021, Speech after oath taking ceremony in Tehran https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/463741/Raisi-officially-takes-oath-of-office-as-Iran-s-president

Country , Help

“While we are currently confronted with the unprecedented difficulties caused by the spread of the coronavirus disease. . . I sincerely hope that we all work together hand in hand to overcome this difficult situation and continue to seek happiness of the people and world peace.”

Naruhito (1960) Emperor of Japan since 2019

Source: "Emperor Naruhito Makes Reference to Pandemic in First Speech in Half-Year" in Nippon https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00612/ (1 October 2020)

Happiness , People , Sincerity , World

“I know there are some other shows where you run into difficulty with this multimedia platform where everyone has a voice, and we engage with fans so regularly. It’s hard to give everyone what they want, but you also need to push your fans a little bit.”

Andrea Brooks (1989) Canadian actor

Source: Interview With Actress Andrea Brooks, “When Calls the Heart” https://mydevotionalthoughts.net/2017/03/interview-with-andrea-brooks-when-calls-the-heart.html (March 4, 2017)

“I'm having difficulty controlling my blood lust.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Source: 20 September 2001, quoted in "Colin Powell Still Wants Answers" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/magazine/colin-powell-iraq-war.html

“During these moments of extreme difficulty we will all have to adapt in some way, because there are already many who live in hardship.”

Eduardo Horacio García (1956) Catholic bishop

Source: Covid 19: "the word of God is carried out by concrete gestures of solidarity", underlines Mgr. Garcia http://www.fides.org/en/news/67736-AMERICA_ARGENTINA_Covid_19_the_word_of_God_is_carried_out_by_concrete_gestures_of_solidarity_underlines_Mgr_Garcia (14 April 2020coronavirus)

Way

“No one ever landed on English soil with more hatred in his heart for a race than I did for the English, and, on this platform, are present English friends who can bear witness to the fact, but the more I lived among them, saw how the machine is working, the English national life, mixed with them, found where the heart-beat of the nation was, the more I loved them. There is none among you here present, my brothers, who loves the English people more than I do. You have to see what is going on there, and you have to mix with them. As the philosophy, our national philosophy of the Vedanta, has summarised all misfortune, all misery from that one cause, ignorance, herein also we must understand that the difficulties that arise between us and the English people are mostly due to that ignorance; we do not know them, they do not know us.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Source: Spoken on his return to India from England, as recorded in From Colombo to Almora (1904), p. 221

Understanding , Love , Life , People

“A time came when the Catholics, having long relied on force, were compelled to appeal to opinion. That which had been defiantly acknowledged and defended required to be ingeniously explained away. The same motive which had justified the murder now prompted the lie. Men shrank from the conviction that the rulers and restorers of their Church had been murderers and abetters of murder, and that so much infamy had been coupled with so much zeal. They feared to say that the most monstrous of crimes had been solemnly approved at Rome, lest they should devote the Papacy to the execration of mankind. A swarm of facts were invented to meet the difficulty: The victims were insignificant in number; they were slain for no reason connected with religion; the Pope believed in the existence of the plot; the plot was a reality; the medal is fictitious; the massacre was a feint concerted with the Protestants themselves; the Pope rejoiced only when he heard that it was over. These things were repeated so often that they have been sometimes believed; and men have fallen into this way of speaking whose sincerity was unimpeachable, and who were not shaken in their religion by the errors or the vices of Popes. Möhler was pre-eminently such a man. In his lectures on the history of the Church, which were published only last year, he said that the Catholics, as such, took no part in the massacre; that no cardinal, bishop, or priest shared in the councils that prepared it; that Charles informed the Pope that a conspiracy had been discovered; and that Gregory made his thanksgiving only because the King's life was saved. Such things will cease to be written when men perceive that truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

Source: 1860s, The Massacre Of St. Bartholomew (1869)

Sincerity , Life , Men , Truth

“Any difficulty, large or small, stimulates the intellect to find a solution.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Qualsiasi difficoltà, piccola o grande che sia, stimola l'intelletto a trovare una soluzione.
Source: prevale.net

“I believe that all the trials and challenges that God gives us are meant to make us stronger and to lead us to a better path in life. There are things that we can't control. We just have to accept them and do our best to survive and surpass the difficulties.”

Hidilyn Diaz (1991) Filipino Olympic weightlifter, Philippines' first Olympic Gold Medalist

Source: Olympian Hidilyn Diaz Talks About Rock Bottom And Her Battle To Win The Gold https://www.tatlerasia.com/the-scene/people-parties/olympian-hidilyn-diaz-talks-about-her-rock-bottom-and-her-battle-to-the-top (23 July 2020)

God , Life

“Everything came easy to me in life. I could always shake off difficulties, like water on a duck's wings.”

Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012) Italian neurologist

Source: In an interview with Paolo Giordano, 100 anni di futuro, Wired, n. 1, marzo 2009.

Water , Life

“They said I was going to fail because of difficulty. They didn't know I am made exactly for that.”

- Goa

“Our difficulty accepting impermanence is the heart of human suffering.”

Susan Cain book Bittersweet

Bittersweet, Chapter 8 at p. 181

Suffering , Heart

“We are bound to encounter many failures, difficulties, pains, trials, temptations and disappointments. Whatever it is, we are called to be courageous, striving continuously because Jesus is with us always. He will never abandon us.”

John Wong Soo Kau (1968) Malaysian Archbishop

Archbishop John: True Happiness Is in Serving and Giving, Not Wealth https://www.borneotoday.net/archbishop-john-true-happiness-is-in-serving-and-giving-not-wealth/ (2018)

Courage , Pain , Disappointment , Failure

“For human beings, there is no difficulty that cannot be overcome. Rely on yourself, and you can overcome anything.”

Wei Jingsheng (1950) Chinese democracy activist and dissident

"In Exile, Free Speech at Last in The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/11/22/in-exile-free-speech-at-last/4591c34b-12c4-4a86-be28-261f6a260b8d/ (22 November 1997)

“Where we find a difficulty we may always expect that a discovery awaits us. Where there is cover we hope for game.”

Clive Staples Lewis book Reflections on the Psalms

Reflections on the Psalms (1958), ch. III: Cursings

Game , Hope

“In this world, to survive you have to be a strong, courageous woman, a woman who overcomes difficulties by turning them into successes. A woman with dedication, intuition, costancy, honor, loyalty and sweetness. A woman not for everyone, but only for those who dare to have her by her side.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: In questo mondo, per sopravvivere devi essere una donna forte, coraggiosa, una donna che supera le difficoltà trasformandole in successi. Una donna con dedizione, intuizione, costanza, onore, lealtà e dolcezza. Una donna non per tutti, ma solo per chi osa averla al suo fianco.
Source: prevale.net

Strong , World , Loyalty , Courage

“When life challenges you… and with time, patience, resistance and courage you will break down all the difficulties, she it will equalize its accounts: giving you the impossible.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Quando la vita ti sfida... e con il tempo, la pazienza, la resistenza ed il coraggio abbatterai tutte le difficoltà, lei pareggerà i suoi conti: donandoti l'impossibile.
Source: prevale.net

Patience , Courage , Time , Life

“You are stronger than your difficulties. Much stronger.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Sei più forte delle tue difficoltà. Molto più forte.
Source: prevale.net

“Take my hand and take me far away. Away from trouble, bad thoughts and difficulties. Take me with you, just you and me, into a world called happiness.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Prendi la mia mano e portami lontano. Lontano dai guai, dai cattivi pensieri e dalle difficoltà. Portami con te, solo io e te, in un mondo chiamato felicità.
Source: prevale.net

Happiness , World

“Often we want to stop thinking, even for a moment. To forget all the difficulties and burdens of life, the sorrows and sufferings. It is much easier to just say, not to worry about anything. But this is the essence of our human consciousness, man's greatest enemy is himself.”

Titon Rahmawan

Suffering , Forgetting , Thinking , Life

“Who likes adversity? No one likes it. However, we can look at adversity from a different perspective. Adversity can be a challenge that must be conquered. Everyone wants to be a winner. Only winners are able to conquer the difficulties and challenges they face.”

Titon Rahmawan

“Those who take bold steps know what risks they face. It could mean difficulty, uncertainty, danger, pain and even death. But a coward chooses the opposite path, even though he knows that the path he takes is not without risk. Running will never solve the problem.”

Titon Rahmawan

Pain , Problem , Death

“Difficulties never come by themselves, there is always a solution. All we need is the foresight to find the best way out.”

Titon Rahmawan

Way