"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle."
— Frederick Douglass

"She was like a drowning person, flailing, reaching for anything that might save her. Her life was an urgent, desperate struggle to justify her life."
— Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel)

"Why should I question God about all the trials and pain in my life? I never question the goodness and blessings."
— Johanne Jestafie

"... it was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice."
— Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness)

"I can't help feeling that there is no beauty without hope, struggle, and conquest."
— Luis Buñuel (My Last Sigh)

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
— John F. Kennedy

"Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn't touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror--of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision--he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath:
'The horror! The horror!'"
— Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness)

"It's never easy to be the only monkey that walks upright."
— Luke Greer

"O snail
Climb Mount Fuji
But slowly, slowly!"
— Kobayashi Issa

"We've all lost something along the way."
— Po Bronson ("Why Do I Love These People?": Understanding, Surviving, and Creating Your Own Family)

"Struggle is the food from which change is made, and the best time to make the most of a struggle is when it's right in front of your face.

Now, I know that might sound a bit simplistic. But, too often we're led to believe that struggling is a bad thing, or that we struggle because we're doing something wrong.

I disagree. I look at struggle as an opportunity to grow. True struggle happens when you can sense what is not working for you and you're willing to take the appropriate action to correct the situation. Those who accomplish change are willing to engage the struggle.

"
— Danny Dreyer

"As beauty lies in eyes of beholder, struggling lies in reaching further. "
— Santosh Kalwar

"He struggled with himself, too. I saw it -- I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself."
— Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness)

"They key of persistence opens all door closed by resistence "
— John Di Lemme

"All struggle, all resistance is -- must be -- concrete. And all struggle has a global resonance. If not here, then there. If not now, then soon. Elsewhere as well as here."
— Susan Sontag (At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches)

"A person could stop a specific thing, but they couldn’t stop change in general. Rivers can’t run backward. Yet, he felt there must be an alternative, neither willfulness nor resignation. He couldn’t put words to it. All he knew was, neither of them had changed their minds and neither of them could find anything more to say. (229)"
— David Wroblewski (The Story of Edgar Sawtelle)

"It is the first vision that counts. The artist has only to remain true to his dream and it will possess his work in such a manner that it will resemble the work of no other... for no two visions are alike, and those who reach the heights have all toiled up steep mountains by a different route. To each has been revealed a different panorama. "
— Albert Pinkham Ryder

""Writing is really just a matter of writing a lot, writing consistently and having faith that you'll continue to get better and better. Sometimes, people think that if they don't display great talent and have some success right away, they won't succeed. But writing is about struggling through and learning and finding out what it is about writing itself that you really love." "
— Laura Kasischke

"Procrastination can wait for Tomorrrow."
— Michelle Marie