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

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

In times of storm, the shallowness of the root structure is revealed.

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

Some people bear three kinds of trouble -- the ones they've had, the ones they have, and the ones they expect to have.

Hale, Edward Everett

Suffering! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.

France, Anatole

Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.

Ward, William A.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, This is a misfortune but To bear this worthily is good fortune.

Aurelius, Marcus

I would never have amounted to anything were it not for adversity. I was forced to come up the hard way.

Penney, J. C. (James Cash)

10.

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

Augustine, St.

11.

Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.

Kierkegaard, S°ren

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.

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

Proverb, Chinese

14.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

15.

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

16.

Breakdowns can create breakthroughs. Things fall apart so things can fall together.

17.

As iron put into the fire loseth its rust and becometh clearly red-hot, so he that wholly turneth himself unto God puts off all slothfulness, and is transformed into a new man.

Kempis, Thomas

18.

Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.

Seneca

19.

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

20.

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

21.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

22.

If your knees are knocking, kneel on them.

23.

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

24.

Had there been no difficulties and no thorns in the way, then man would have been in his primitive state and no progress made in civilization and mental culture.

Joshee, Anandabai

25.

Nothing splendid was ever created in cold blood. Heat is required to forge anything. Every great accomplishment is the story of a flaming heart.

Glasgow, Arnold H.

26.

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

27.

Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, grow, grow.

Talmud, The

28.

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.

Salk, Lee

29.

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

Homer

30.

Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.

Beecher, Henry Ward

31.

If you want to win anything -- a race, your self, your life -- you have to go a little berserk.

Sheehan, George

32.

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

Walton, Sam

33.

We need tough days to drive us to our knees.

34.

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

35.

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

Landers, Ann

36.

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

37.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

38.

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

39.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

40.

One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.

Gibran, Kahlil

41.

One often learns more from ten days of agony than from ten years of contentment.

Shain, Merle

42.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

Ford, Henry

43.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

44.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.

Bible

45.

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

46.

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

47.

Nothing bad ever happens without equal or growth

48.

The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.

Smiles, Samuel

49.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

50.

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