Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest.

Saying, Greek

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)

What is to give light must endure the burning.

Frankl, Viktor E.

When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always get worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

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

Homer

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

Kempis, Thomas

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

Bible

The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is.

Schwab, Charles M.

10.

Cushion the painful effects of hard blows by keeping the enthusiasm going strong, even if doing so requires struggle.

Peale, Norman Vincent

11.

The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

12.

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.

13.

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

Propertius, Sextus

14.

If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?

15.

It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish.

Heraclitus

16.

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

Johnson

17.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

18.

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

Weltman, Phil

19.

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

20.

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us--and those around us -- more effectively. Look for the learning.

Allenbaugh, Eric

21.

Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.

Colton, Charles Caleb

22.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

23.

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

24.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

25.

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

26.

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

Horace

27.

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

28.

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.

29.

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

Horton, Doug

30.

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.

31.

Just because Fate doesn?t deal you the right cards, it doesn?t mean you should give up. It just means you have to play the cards you get to their maximum potential.

Brown, Les

32.

As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it.

Horace

33.

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

34.

To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.

Epictetus

35.

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

36.

He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.

Fosdick, Harry Emerson

37.

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

38.

There will be no crown bearers in heaven who are not cross bearers on earth.

39.

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

40.

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

41.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

42.

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

43.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

44.

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

Alcott, Louisa May

45.

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

46.

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

Collins, Kitty O'neill

47.

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

Kennedy, Rose F.

48.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

49.

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.

Peale, Norman Vincent

50.

There is in every woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

Irving, Washington