Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who rejected you, and braced themselves against you, or disputed the passage with you?

—Walt Whitman

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.

—Albert Einstein

Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.

 —Howard Aiken

Don’t be afraid of opposition. Remember, a kite rises against — not with — the wind.

—Hamilton Mabie

Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember — the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.

—Zig Ziglar

The likelihood of one individual being right increases in direct ratio to the intensity with which other try to prove him wrong.

—Leonore Fleischer

Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.

—Heraclitus

In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.

—John Kenneth Galbraith

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

—Alexander Hamilton

The wise man always throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

—Winston Churchill

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.

—Frank A. Clark