Overcoming Offense Quotes

Everybody has something to teach us. If someone hurt or offend you, be grateful for the lesson learned. Then forgive, let go and move on. ~ Jeanette Coron

A dream is an idea involving a sense of possibilities rather than probabilities, of potential rather than limits. A dream is the wellspring of passion, giving us direction and pointing us to lofty heights. It is an expression of optimism, hope and values lofty enough to capture the imagination and engage the spirit. Dreams grab us and move us. They are capable of lifting us to new heights and overcoming self-imposed limitations. ~ Robert Kriegel

Let a man overcome anger by love. ~ Gautama Buddha

In most organizational change efforts, it is much easier to draw on the strengths of the culture than to overcome the constraints by changing the culture. ~ Edgar Schein

When you play by the rules, defy mental demons, overcome every challenge, and enjoy a walk in the country at the same time - that's being alive. ~ Arnold Palmer

I try to keep the happy memories. If that's what you call selective memories, I'm good with that. ~ Nicole Williams

This is a story about understanding overcoming compulsion, love overcoming revulsion; and oneness overcoming abuse. About the rare sort of kind-geniality, and brave-morality; which we all possess but seldom use.

A story about detractors who will be defeated, challenges which will be completed; and principles which will be proclaimed. About acts of persecution, and threats of execution; which will all be constrained.

This is the beginning of Alfred Freeman's story, the beginning of a life full of glory; and the beginning of Alfred himself. Because Alfred is being born, in his human form; with peaceful-eyes and perfect-health. ~ Joss Sheldon

Every experience, however bitter, has its lesson, and to focus one's attention on the lesson helps one overcome the bitterness. ~ Edward Howard Griggs

Right now religion has the romantic aura of the forbidden - Christ is cool. We need to bring it into the schools, which kids already hate, and associate it firmly with boredom, regulation, condescension, makework and de facto segregation ... Prayer in the schools will rid us of the bland no-offense ecumenism that is so infuriating to us anticlericals: Oh, so now you say Jews didn't kill Christ - a little on the late side, isn't it? ~ Katha Pollitt

It is simply a confession that with all that I've seen in the last few years, all the events I've been invited to, and all the people whom I've met, I am less and less impressed by "impressive" things or people who are presented as having things figured out. I am impressed by people who are honest and kind. I am inspired by moments of vulnerability, moments of confession and compassion, moments where someone makes it clear that they are a person in need of other people and someone else makes it clear that the first person is not alone. ~ Jamie Tworkowski

Having limits to push against is how you find out what you can do. ~ Sylvie Guillem

Truly, a command of gall cannot be obeyed like one of sugar. A man must require just and reasonable things; if he would see the scales of obedience properly trimmed. From orders which are improper, springs resistance, which is not easily overcome. ~ Giambattista Basile

One becomes more interested in a job of work after the first impulse to drop it has been overcome. ~ Fulton J. Sheen

it's not the obstacles in our life that define us. It's the grace we display when overcoming them. ~ Tracy Brogan

I don't need friends. All they do is eat your food, drink your beer, then spew your secrets the first time you do something that displeases them. No offense, but when you have as many enemies as I do, you keep your secrets under lock and key. (Solin) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

Try to relax. Sometimes the best offense is a good defense. ~ Becca Fitzpatrick

Darcy was continually giving offense. ~ Jane Austen

Christianity without the cross is nothing. The cross was the fitting close of a life of rejection, scorn and defeat. But in no true sense have these things ceased or changed. Jesus is still He whom man despiseth, and the rejected of men. The world has never admired Jesus, for moral courage is yet needed in every one of its high places by him who would "confess" Christ. The "offense" of the cross, therefore, has led men in all ages to endeavor to be rid of it, and to deny that it is the power of God in the world. ~ Lord Kelvin

If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been. ~ Robert H. Schuller

We therefore have a good chance of overcoming the problem of resource scarcity. The real nemesis of the modern economy is ecological collapse. Both scientific progress and economic growth take place within a brittle biosphere, and as they gather steam, so the shock waves destabilise the ecology. In ~ Yuval Noah Harari

Hopeful dreams - even where crack kings' and dope fiends feast. Dust from the ash and rubble; they shine like bright stars once the mic is gripped and the bars are spit. ~ T.F. Hodge

Power is the big obstacle, or one of them, that you have to overcome and learn to deal with effectively before you can reach enlightenment. ~ Frederick Lenz

It is but seldom that any one overt act produces hostilities between two nations; there exists, more commonly, a previous jealousy and ill will, a predisposition to take offense. ~ Washington Irving

The sweetest pleasure arises from difficulties overcome. ~ Publilius Syrus

God never punishes his children in the sense of avenging justice. He chastens as a father does his child, but he never punishes his redeemed as a judge does a criminal. It is unjust to exact punishment from redeemed souls since Christ has been punished in their place. How shall the Lord punish twice for one offense? ~ Charles Spurgeon

The problem with today's world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it.
The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense! ~ Brian Cox

Winning isn't about finishing in first place. It isn't about beating the others. It is about overcoming yourself. Overcoming your body, your limitations, and your fears. Winning means surpassing yourself and turning your dreams into reality. ~ Kilian Jornet

Here they are today, the Democrats; they're making this big deal about how this woman [Hillary Clinton] has overcome all of this discrimination. She has overcome the biggest guns of opposition that have been arrayed against her! ~ Rush Limbaugh

And sometimes drunk women aren't raped; they just make stupid choices
and to say we deserve special treatment when we're drunk because we're women, to say we need to be looked after, I find offensive. ~ Gillian Flynn

The real secret, though, is that nobody belongs, whether they are natives or not. After expulsion from paradise all humans are in exile. You can be a Colonel Sanders chicken, born, raised and fried in one quarter of a square foot and you'll still be an outsider. The thing we call reality is a holding tank for people who must worry about belonging -- it's a worrier prison. Don't worry people! You'll soon be fried and eaten. A few of us are writers, hence double-alienated, but happier (because we are busy)
If it's true that many of us go through life feeling like we don't belong, could digression (geographical and otherwise) be our way of trying to forget, or to escape, that feeling?

Bad news: there are no digressions. Everything is connected in the whole darn ball of yarn: start pulling at any end and you'll get to the same place. On the other hand, most normal people dislike digression because they have to lose themselves to follow you. The surest way to drive your dear ones crazy is to digress. In private, it's an offense. In public it's "art," "performance. ~ Andrei Codrescu

What we committed in the Indies stands out among the most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and mankind and this trade [in Indian slaves] as one of the most unjust, evil, and cruel among them. ~ Bartolome De Las Casas

Wealth to us is not mere material for vainglory but an opportunity for achievement; and poverty we think it no disgrace to acknowledge but a real degredation to make no effort to overcome. ~ Thucydides

Horror films have always been quite operatic for me. I always sort of scratch my head at people's offense to them? If you don't get them, and you don't like them, then don't watch them. ~ Bryan Fuller

Passing on some useful or entertaining tidbit about another person is a sign of commitment. If you jeopardize your relationship with the subject of the gossip about him or her, you show that you value whom you're talking with more than whom you're talking about. Yet even more simply than that, we show people we value them by agreeing with them. The innocent urge to make friends and avoid giving offense has a profound influence on how we use gossip and the reputations that result from it. ~ John Whitfield

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity. ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

He who overcomes himself is divine. Most see their ruin before their eyes; but they go on into it. ~ Leopold Von Ranke

(Humans, take note: You can refer to the Realm as "Faerie" without causing offense, but do not make the mistake of referring to its citizens as "fairies" - unless you want to be punched.) Elfhaeme ~ Ellen Kushner

If you use disappointments as sort of mid- semester exams, for learning, you will learn that every disappointment you overcome makes you stronger- and wiser. The greatest success stories have been lived by those who had to grow strong and wise in that very way. ~ Loretta Young

What grieves me most in my past offenses, O my loving God, is not so much the punishment I have deserved, as the displeasure I have given You, Who are worthy of infinite love. ~ Alphonsus Liguori

Well I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one way or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And, you know what, in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that's how I was raised and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman. ~ Carrie Prejean

Challenges are what you came for.
And you are never ever given
a challenge you cannot overcome. ~ Neale Donald Walsch

My lady," Sebastian murmured, resting one hand at
the small of her corseted back. Regarding Haldane with a slight smile, he continued to speak to Evie. "It seems I'll have to warn you, my love... this gentleman is a wolf in sheep's clothing."
Although Evie would have expected the elderly man to take offense at such a remark, Haldane chuckled with pleasure, his vanity flattered. "If I were twenty years younger, my impudent fellow, I would steal her away from you. Despite your much-vaunted charm, you are no match for what I was then."
"Age hasn't tamed you a whit," Sebastian replied with a grin, drawing Evie away from him. "Pardon us, my lord, while I remove my wife from safer territory."
"It is obvious that this elusive fellow has been caught firmly in your snare," Haldane told Evie. "Go, then, and pacify his jealous temperament."
"I... I will try," Evie said uncertainly. For some reason both men laughed, and Sebastian kept his hand on Evie's back as they left the main room. ~ Lisa Kleypas

Any philosophy, whether of a religious or political nature - and sometimes the dividing line is hard to determine - fights less for the negative destruction of the opposing ideology than for the positive promotion of its own. Hence its struggle is less defensive than offensive. It therefore has the advantage even in determining the goal, since this goal represents the victory of its own idea, while, conversely,it is hard to determine when the negative aim of the destruction of a hostile doctrine may be regarded as achieved and assured. For this reason alone, the philosophy's offensive will be more systematic and also more powerful than the defensive against a philosophy, since here, too, as always, the attack and not the defence makes the decision. The fight against a spiritual power with methods of violence remains defensive, however, until the sword becomes the support,the herald and disseminator, of a new spiritual doctrine. ~ Adolf Hitler

We are the same, you and I. Whether samurai or night-hawk, the Suruga Dainagon or member of the Toudouza, it makes no difference. My sword is the proof ... ~ Takayuki Yamaguchi

If I had my life to live over, I would perhaps have more actual troubles but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. ~ Don Herold

When you look at what C.S. Lewis is saying, his message is so anti-life, so cruel, so unjust. The view that the Narnia books have for the material world is one of almost undisguised contempt. At one point, the old professor says, 'It's all in Plato' - meaning that the physical world we see around us is the crude, shabby, imperfect, second-rate copy of something much better. I want to emphasize the simple physical truth of things, the absolute primacy of the material life, rather than the spiritual or the afterlife.

[The New York Times interview, 2000] ~ Philip Pullman

If Christ has once possessed the affections, there is no dispossessing of him again. A fire in the heart overcomes all fires without. ~ Richard Sibbes

I understand that it's hard for everyone, but one cannot give in to emotions ... we'll have to draw lessons from the current crisis and now we'll have to work on overcoming it. ~ Boris Yeltsin

If we cultivate compassion for those who have hurt us, we have the possibility of overcoming our anger,pain, and fear. compassion is a great medicine. ~ Goldie Hawn