The document contains quotes from several resilience experts and researchers. Viktor Frankl discusses how even in the most difficult circumstances, one can choose their attitude. Emmy Werner and Ruth Smith found that most individuals who grew up in adverse conditions can successfully adapt as adults. Ann Masten notes that resilience comes from ordinary human resources and relationships, not rare qualities. Kathy Marshall states that resilience is our innate ability to navigate life successfully. Bonnie Benard argues that systemic change requires changing personal perspectives. The final quote from Kathy Marshall indicates that systems change occurs when groups tap into their shared resilience from within.

1. National Resilience Resource Center LLC
marsh008@umn.edu
Promising Resilience Perspectives

2. “We who lived in the concentration camps can
remember the men who walked through the huts
comforting others, giving away their last piece of
bread. They may have been few in
number, but they offer
sufficient proof that
everything can be taken
from a man but one thing:
The last of his freedoms
- to choose one's
attitude in any
given set of
circumstances,
to choose one's
own way.”
Viktor Frankl, 1959
National Resilience Resource Center LLC marsh008@umn.edu

3. “What lessons did we learn?
Most of all … they were lessons that taught us a
great deal of respect for the self-righting tendencies
in human nature and for the capacity of most individuals
who grew up in adverse circumstances to make
a successful adaptation in adulthood.”
Emmy Werner & Ruth Smith, 2001
National Resilience Resource Center LLC
marsh008@umn.edu

4. Resilience is an “active process of
self-righting and growth” with
“developmental integrity that
guides even the most
challenged lives.”
Gina O’Connell Higgins, 1996
National Resilience Resource Center LLC
marsh008@umn.edu

5. “The great surprise of resilience research is the ordinariness of the
phenomena … . Resilience does not come from rare and special qualities, but
from ordinary everyday magic of ordinary, normative human resources in the
minds, brains, and bodies of children, in their families and relationships,
and in their communities.”
Ann Masten, 2001
National Resilience Resource Center LLC
marsh008@umn.edu

6. “Resilience is our natural,
innate capacity to navigate life
successfully. The opportunity to learn
how we operate makes a critical difference
whether one realizes resilience or not.”
Kathy Marshall, 2000
National Resilience Resource Center LLC
marsh008@umn.edu

7. “Moving to a resiliency approach requires a
a personal transformation of vision … the
lens through which we see our world. To
make systemic changes … depends
on changing hearts and minds.”
Bonnie Benard, 1993
National Resilience Resource Center LLC
marsh008@umn.edu

8. “When there's improvement, it usually
isn't that the services per se were
different, it's about a change
in the person who
delivered the service,
and the way they
delivered it. It became
clear systems change
meant changing the
interactions between
people in all the
systems…a very different
and difficult agenda.”
Annie E. Casey Foundation, Don Crary,
The Key Insight, The Eye of the Storm:
Ten Years on the Front Lines of New Futures
National Resilience Resource Center LLC
marsh008@umn.edu

9. “What psychologists have learned over 50 years
is that the disease model does not move
psychology closer to the prevention of
… serious problems …. Psychologists need
now to call for massive research on human
strengths and virtues …. The major psychological
theories have changed to undergird a new science
of strength and resilience.”
Martin Seligman & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 2000
National Resilience Resource Center LLC
marsh008@umn.edu

10. “Systems change when groups
of people together tap
their resilience and
change from
the inside out.”
K. Marshall, 2002
National Resilience Resource Center LLC
marsh008@umn.edu

11. We wish you peace and joy.
A charitable service of the National Resilience Resource Center LLC.
Kathy Marshall Emerson, Director
marsh008@umn.edu