Quotes / Iron Woobie

Anime and Manga

"Naruto grew up without a father, same as you. ...Actually, without any parents. He doesn't remember either one of them or have a single friend. And in all the time I've known him, I've never seen him cry, or use his troubles as an excuse to sulk or be a coward. Not once. He always tries his hardest, hoping someone will notice and give him a kind word or a pat on the back. That's his dream, and he's risked his life for it. I think one day he must have just gotten fed up with crying. He understands what it means to be strong. He knows what it costs and what it's worth, just as your father did.

— Kakashi to Inari, Naruto

Fan Works

Professor Ozpin: Meanwhile, Ruby herself has shown an amazing resilience and emotional strength given what she has gone through. Although there is a high chance she could be repressing her trauma under a strong front.
Winter Schnee: I have known Atlesian veterans who have seen half of what she has and broken under the pressure.

— Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger, "Epilogue"

After the door closed, Rin spent the next thirty minutes in the bathroom vomiting, the next hour crying, and the entire night plotting.

— "Hollow Child", a Fate/stay night fanfic (spoilers for canon in link)

Film — Live-Action

"Only the most broken people can make great leaders."

— Namor, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Literature

"A decent person would have rejected her offer out of hand.
I'm not always one of those.
I could offer you some excuses, if you like. I could tell you that I was an orphan by the time I was six. I could tell you that the foster father who eventually raised me subjected me to more forms of psychological and physical abuse than you could shake a stick at. I could tell you that I'd been held in unjust suspicion for my entire adult life by the White Council, whose principles and ideals I'd done my best to uphold. Or maybe I could say that I'd seen too many good people get hurt, or that I'd looked upon a lot of nasty things with my indelible wizard's Sight. I could tell you that I'd been caught and abused by the creatures of the night myself, and that I hadn't ever really gotten over it. I could tell you that I hadn't gotten laid in a really long time.
And all of those things would be true."

— Harry Dresden about himself, The Dresden Files, "Small Favor"

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed."

— William Ernest Henley, Invictus

"He was deceptively quiet. He appeared anemic and frail. He kept himself on the periphery. But Will was right about how much Nico had been through. He had been born in Mussolini's Italy. He had survived decades in the time-warp reality of the Lotus Casino. He'd emerged in modern times disoriented and culture-shocked, arrived at Camp Half-Blood, and promptly lost his sister Bianca to a dangerous quest. He had wandered the Labyrinth in self-imposed exile, being tortured and brainwashed by a malevolent ghost. He'd overcome everyone's distrust and emerged from the Battle of Manhattan as a hero. He'd been captured by giants during the rise of Gaea. He'd wandered Tartarus alone and somehow managed to come out alive. And through it all, he'd struggled with his upbringing as a conservative Catholic Italian male from the 1930s and finally learned to accept himself as a young gay man.
Anyone who could survive all that had more resilience than Stygian iron."

— Apollo, The Trials of Apollo

Music

Mind strong, body strong
Try to find equilibrium
Head straight, screwed on
Been screwed up for too long...

— Bush, "The Sound of Winter"

I climb to fall, to begin again, to begin again
I climb to fall, suffer, hatred, deceit and pain
Anger, regret, loving in vain...

— Imogen Heap, "Useless"

They can rip you, bring you down, down to their size
But they will never get to the heart you hold inside...

— Little Mix, "Change Your Life"

'Cause I have been where you are before
And I have felt the pain of losing who you are
And I have died so many times, but I am still alive...

— Cristina Perri, "I Believe"

All the life she has seen
All the meaner side of me
They took away the prophet's dream
For a profit on the street
Now she's stronger than you know
A heart of steel starts to grow

All his life, he's been told
He'll be nothing when he's old
All the kicks and all the blows
He won't ever let it show
'Cause he's stronger than you know
A heart of steel starts to grow

— The Script, "Superheroes"

Video Games

"How many years has it been since I was kept awake by hopes for the future, rather than by nightmares of the past... I have had the same nightmare for nine long years. A nightmare in which I am constantly tormented by those who have died... They ask me why I have not avenged them... Why I got to live, yet they had to die... No matter how many corpses I piled up for them, in the end, their voices only grew louder. Voices loathing me, calling out to me... Their inescapable death cries ringing in my ears...clinging to my soul... Even now, I can always hear them. I am certain I will be hearing them until the day I die. But I will not cover my ears. I will go on living...and their voices will serve as a warning. As a king...and as a wretch who claimed countless lives...I will build a Kingdom where the people can live in peace. I am sure she would laugh and call such talk foolish... But I wish to change this world in my own way."

— Dimitri, Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Visual Novels

She wasn't discouraged nor did she cry at her fate.
She was beautiful.
She didn't bow to anyone and fought them all by herself.
She was noble.
She shone brightly, like a divine figure.
I needed someone like her.

— Frederica Bernkastel, in a poem about Rena Ryuuguu, Higurashi: When They Cry

Webcomics

"Whenever life knocks me down, I get right back up again. It's bound to get tired eventually."

— Luigi, It Sucks to Be Weegie!

Western Animation

"I finally have you. But I can't get you home because of this blizzard. There's always something. Not that you'd understand; you're like my sister. Everything always came easy to her. She's a firebending prodigy, and everyone adores her. My father says she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born!"
(Beat)
"I don't need luck though. I don't want it. I've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong. It's made me who I am."

— Prince Zuko, Avatar: The Last Airbender

"I know how dark it is for you right now, curled up lying in your own emotional vomit. You're in Hell now Boomhauer, and the only way out is through a long, dark tunnel, and you're afraid to go in, because there's a train comin' at ya, carrying a boxcar full of heartbreak. Well let me tell you something, all you can do is let it hit you and then try to find your legs. I know, I've taken that hit more times than I can remember. Look at me Boomhauer, I'm fat, and I'm old, and every day I'm just gonna wake up fatter and older. But somehow, I manage to drag this fat old bald bastard out into the alley every day. I'm out there, diggin' holes, fallin' into 'em, climbing out, trying again. And tomorrow I'm gonna hang outside at a lady's prison, and the first thing those lady cons are gonna see after twenty years is me. Will I get one? Experience says no. Will I be out there next month? If I'm alive you better believe it."

— Bill Dauterive, King of the Hill

"Dear Orel, always remember, son, even though you are the perfect candidate for brainwashing in this town, you're also too pure and good-hearted to be corrupted. -Love, Grandpa."

— Arthur Puppington, Moral Orel

Miscellaneous

"Why me?"
Because only I can stand it.

— The Corio Dragon

"Everyone who has ever built anywhere a new heaven first found the power thereto in his own hell."

— Friedrich Nietzsche

"Once you've driven a drunken father to mom's parole hearing, what else is there?"

— Christopher Titus

"I was telling my company supervisor in Nagasaki that one bomb had destroyed all of Hiroshima. He told me I was crazy. Just as he said that, the bomb fell on Nagasaki."

— Interview with Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a man who survived both atomic bombings on Japan.

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