Motivational Quotes

Adversity

Enter through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it. [Mathew 7:13-14]

- Bible

Best Quotes about Adversity

Two frogs fell into a bowl of cream. One didn't panic, he relaxed and drowned. The other kicked and struggled so much that the cream turned to butter and he walked out.

Am I willing to give up what I have in order to be what I am not yet? Am I able to follow the spirit of love into the desert? It is a frightening and sacred moment. There is no return. One's life is charged forever. It is the fire that gives us our shape.

Richards, Mary Caroline

That which causes us trials shall yield us triumph: and that which make our hearts ache shall fill us with gladness. The only true happiness is to learn, to advance, and to improve: which could not happen unless we had commence with error, ignorance, and imperfection. We must pass through the darkness, to reach the light.

Pike, Albert

I didn't know I'd have to be torn down before I could be built up.

When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

Russell, Rosalind

Every hardship; every joy; every temptation is a challenge of the spirit; that the human soul may prove itself. The great chain of necessity wherewith we are bound has divine significance; and nothing happens which has not some service in working out the sublime destiny of the human soul.

Ford, Elias A.

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

Proverb, Italian

In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time.

Collier, Robert

Anytime you suffer a setback or disappointment, put your head down and plow ahead.

Brown, Les

10.

All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.

Ransom, Ralph

11.

You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

Schmidt, Walt

12.

We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

13.

Your dips an falls do not confound me, half as much as your heights astound me.

14.

Men often bear little grievances with less courage than they do large misfortunes.

Aesop

15.

Adversity is a fact of life. It can't be controlled. What we can control is how we react to it.

16.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

Tagore, Rabindranath

17.

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. [Isaiah 48:10]

Bible

18.

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

19.

The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.

Horace

20.

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are stronger at the broken places.

Hemingway, Ernest

21.

When walking through the valley of shadows, remember, a shadow is cast by a Light.

Barclay, H.K.

22.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Coppola, Francis Ford

23.

Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, Shake well before using. That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable.

Havner, Vance

24.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

25.

Do not free the camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

26.

The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up.

27.

He who knows the darkness shall learn to live in the light.

28.

We say, sorrow, disaster, calamity. God says,chastening and it sounds sweet to him though it is a discord to our ears. Don't faint when you are rebuked, and don't despise the chastening of the Lord. In your patience possess your souls.

Chambers, Oswald

29.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.

Hill, Napoleon

30.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

Proverb, Chinese

31.

A man is insensible to the relish of prosperity until he has tasted adversity.

Saadi

32.

Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this.

Homer

33.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

34.

You may live in an imperfect world but the frontiers are not closed and the doors are not all shut.

Maltz, Maxwell

35.

When I dig another out of trouble, the hole from which I lift him is the place where I bury my own.

36.

A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.

Horace

37.

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

Seneca

38.

Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of character but strengthen it. Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.

Buckham, James

39.

A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.

Neal, John

40.

Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer.

Landers, Ann

41.

Adversity is a great teacher, but this teacher makes us pay dearly for its instruction; and often the profit we derive, is not worth the price we paid.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

42.

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door -- or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.

Tagore, Rabindranath

43.

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity.

Holtz, Lou

44.

When a man gets to despair he knows that all his thinking will never get him out. He will only get out by the sheer creative effort of God. Consequently he is in the right attitude to receive from God that which he cannot gain for himself.

Chambers, Oswald

45.

It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.

Bennet, Arnold

46.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

Seneca

47.

People are like stained -- glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within

Ross, Elizabeth Kubler

48.

The seaman tells stories of winds, the ploughman of bulls; the soldier details his wounds, the shepherd his sheep.

Propertius, Sextus

49.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Paine, Thomas

50.

Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist -- it reduces him to his fighting weight.

Billings, Josh