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

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.

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

Homer

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

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

Out of love and hatred, out of earnings and borrowings and leadings and losses; out of sickness and pain; out of wooing and worshipping; out of traveling and voting and watching and caring; out of disgrace and contempt, comes our tuition in the serene and beautiful laws.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.

Beecher, Henry Ward

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

Tagore, Rabindranath

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

Proverb, Italian

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

Hemingway, Ernest

10.

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

11.

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.

12.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

13.

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.

14.

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

Brown, Les

15.

Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward.

Gallagher, Robert C.

16.

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

17.

Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you.

Gesser

18.

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

Virgil

19.

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

20.

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

Ward, William A.

21.

Nothing bad ever happens without equal or growth

22.

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

Schmidt, Walt

23.

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

24.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

25.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

Seneca

26.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

27.

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

Russell, Rosalind

28.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

James, William

29.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

30.

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

31.

Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valleys you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper.

Mandino, Og

32.

There could be no honor in a sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat.

Lawrence, Thomas E.

33.

Many miles away there's a shadow on the door of a cottage on the Shore of a dark Scottish lake.

Sting

34.

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

Seneca

35.

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

Grant, Hanmer Parsons

36.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

37.

Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.

Jones, Charles ''Tremendous''

38.

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

39.

What is to give light must endure the burning.

Frankl, Viktor E.

40.

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.

Proverb, Maori

41.

Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it.

Winfrey, Oprah

42.

God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity still in the cloud, the oil still in the earth. How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.

Macdonald, George

43.

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

44.

The path of least resistance is the path of the loser.

Weltman, Phil

45.

Life has meaning only in the struggle. Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the Gods. So let us celebrate the struggle!

Swahili Warrior Song

46.

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

47.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.

Gibran, Kahlil

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.

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

50.

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

Kennedy, Rose F.