Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Billings, Josh

Best Quotes about Adversity

Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

I used to hurt so badly that I'd ask God why, what have I done to deserve any of this? I feel now He was preparing me for this, for the future. That's the way I see it.

Jackson, Janet

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

Do you think that you shall enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed before you?

Qur'an

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

Johnson, Samuel

There are times in everyone's life when something constructive is born out of adversity... when things seem so bad that you've got to grab your fate by the shoulders and shake it.

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

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

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

Proverb, Chinese

10.

If the career you have chosen has some unexpected inconvenience, console yourself by reflecting that no career is without them.

Johnson

11.

In terms of the game theory, we might say the universe is so constituted as to maximize play. The best games are not those in which all goes smoothly and steadily toward a certain conclusion, but those in which the outcome is always in doubt. Similarly, the geometry of life is designed to keep us at the point of maximum tension between certainty and uncertainty, order and chaos. Every important call is a close one. We survive and evolve by the skin of our teeth. We really wouldn't want it any other way.

Leonard, George

12.

If your cup seems too bitter, if your burden seems to heavy, be sure that it is the wounded hand that is holding the cup, and that it is me who carried the cross that is carrying the burden.

13.

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

14.

They that sow in tears shall reap joy. [Psalms 126:5]

Bible

15.

It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one's own advantage and to that of one's craft that a large part of genius consists.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

16.

We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.

Grant, Hanmer Parsons

17.

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.

Salk, Lee

18.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Coppola, Francis Ford

19.

When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Ash, Mary Kay

20.

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

21.

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

22.

We all know that sponges grow in the ocean but I wander how much deeper the ocean would be if that wasn't the case.

23.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Dickinson, Emily

24.

You have endured worse things; God will grant an end even to these.

Virgil

25.

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?

Kennedy, Rose F.

26.

I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.

Walton, Sam

27.

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

Horton, Doug

28.

Trouble shared is trouble halved.

Sayers, Dorothy L.

29.

Misfortunes leave wounds which bleed drop by drop even in sleep; thus little by little they train man by force and dispose him to wisdom in spite of himself. Man must learn to think of himself as a limited and dependent being; and only suffering teaches

Weil, Simone

30.

Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness --a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster-children into strength and athletic proportion.

Bryant, William C.

31.

There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.

Mandino, Og

32.

If the going is real easy, beware, you may be headed down hill and don't know it.

33.

It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows by like a song. But the man worth while is the one who can smile, when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is troubled, And it always comes with the years. And the smiles that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears.

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

34.

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

35.

Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle.

Lowell, James Russell

36.

No one would ever have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in a storm.

37.

He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatest of the soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported without the latter.

Fielding, Henry

38.

The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don't let it get the best of you.

Rogers, Will

39.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

40.

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship.

Alcott, Louisa May

41.

Adversities do not make a man frail. They show what sort of man he is.

Kempis, Thomas

42.

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

Horace

43.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

44.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

45.

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

Aesop

46.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

47.

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

48.

What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise.

Collins, Kitty O'neill

49.

You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.

Angelis, Barbara De

50.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

Schweitzer, Albert