Problems rarely arrive as welcome guests, yet they often carry the seeds of strength, insight, and unexpected gifts. What challenges us most can also help us grow. As an Ancient Oriental Teaching reminds us, “Problems are sent to us as gifts.”

The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved, but only outgrown. ~ Carl Jung

No problem is so big or so complicated that it can’t be run away from. ~ Charles Schulz

The only difference between a problem and a solution is that people understand the solution. ~ Charles F. Kettering

The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them. ~ Bernard M. Baruch

Problems are to the mind what exercise is to the muscles, they toughen and make strong. ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by hitting back. ~ Piet Hein

Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them. ~ Albert Einstein

Life is a continuous exercise in creative problem solving. ~ Michael J. Gelb

Man is not born to solve the problem of the universe, but to find out what he has to do, and to restrain himself within the limits of his comprehension. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In my experience, the worst thing you can do to an important problem is to discuss it. ~ Simon Gray

I must have assistants who will solve their own problems and tell me later what they’ve done. ~ George Marshall

Ask yourself what you could do to make situations less difficult. Do it, even if you think you shouldn’t have to. ~ Karin Ireland

The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it. ~ Welsh Proverb

Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines. ~ Robert Schuller