I heard this quote in an episode of The West Wing from season six:
The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
~ Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, 1929
The thing I like about this quote is the notion that some of us become strong in the places we are broken. This reminds me of a teaching from my first mentor: "In our greatest weakness we will find our greatest strength."
We all face suffering and hardship, but only the strong choose to learn from these challenges. When faced with hardships -- when the world tries to break us -- we must seek out the lesson in the hardship, and learn from it so that we can become strong.
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