To live greatly, we must develop the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and success with humility. — Thomas S. Monson
—What lingers after this line?
Facing Challenges with Bravery
This part highlights the importance of courage when confronting difficulties. To 'live greatly' requires resilience in the face of adversity, rather than succumbing to fear.
Responding to Disappointment
Monson emphasizes the need for maintaining a positive attitude even when facing setbacks. Cheerfulness in disappointment can help prevent despair and promote personal growth.
Handling Success Gracefully
The quote also advises that true greatness requires one to remain humble in times of success. Arrogance can erode achievements, while humility fosters sustained personal and professional development.
Balance in Life's Journey
Thomas S. Monson suggests that greatness in life comes from balance—facing hardships with courage, accepting failures gracefully, and achieving success without letting it inflate one’s ego.
Wisdom in Leadership
Monson, a religious leader and former president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often spoke on leadership and personal values. This quote encapsulates his view that leadership comes from demonstrating strength, optimism, and humility in life's trials and triumphs.
Recommended Reading
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
One-minute reflection
What does this quote ask you to notice today?
Related Quotes
6 selectedWe cultivate a very small field, but we love it, knowing that God does not require great achievements but a heart that holds back nothing. — Thubten Chodron
Thubten Chodron
At its core, Thubten Chodron’s quote overturns the common belief that worth depends on scale. The image of a “very small field” suggests a life of modest responsibilities, limited influence, or quiet service.
Read full interpretation →The thing is to become a master and in your old age to acquire the courage to do what children did when they knew nothing. — Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway’s remark turns success into a paradox: true mastery is not merely the accumulation of skill, but the recovery of a fearless freedom usually associated with childhood. At first glance, expertise seems to move us...
Read full interpretation →Confidence doesn't mean being fearless. Confidence is knowing you are capable of handling the fear. — Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler
At first glance, people often imagine confidence as a polished kind of fearlessness, as though brave individuals simply do not tremble. Amy Poehler’s quote overturns that myth by suggesting that confidence begins not wit...
Read full interpretation →It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else. — Erma Bombeck
Erma Bombeck
Erma Bombeck’s insight begins with a simple truth: dreams feel precious because they expose what we most deeply want. To share them is not merely to state a goal, but to reveal hope, insecurity, and the possibility of fa...
Read full interpretation →You do not have to be fearless to be brave. You only need to be present enough to take the next deliberate action. — Pema Chödrön
Pema Chödrön
At first glance, Pema Chödrön’s quote gently overturns a common misconception: that bravery belongs only to people untouched by fear. Instead, she presents courage as something far more accessible.
Read full interpretation →The most radical act of courage is to be truly seen, to step out from behind our carefully curated walls and offer our authentic selves to the world. — Glennon Doyle
Glennon Doyle
Glennon Doyle’s quote reframes courage not as conquest or spectacle, but as the quiet, risky decision to be known. At its core, it suggests that the bravest act is not hiding our flaws behind polished identities, but all...
Read full interpretation →More From Author
More from Thomas S. Monson →