Motivational Quotes

Adversity

There are three modes of bearing the ills of life, by indifference, by philosophy, and by religion.

- Colton, Charles Caleb

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Seneca

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

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

The stars are constantly shining, but often we do not see them until the dark hours.

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

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

Schweitzer, Albert

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

Billings, Josh

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

Sting

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

Barclay, H.K.

10.

Only entropy comes easy.

Mumford, Lewis

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.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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)

16.

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

17.

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

Collins, Kitty O'neill

18.

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

Schwab, Charles M.

19.

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

20.

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

Bible

21.

They sicken at the calm that know the storm.

Parker, Dorothy

22.

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

23.

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

24.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Dickinson, Emily

25.

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

Kennedy, Rose F.

26.

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

27.

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

28.

It takes a real storm in the average person's life to make him realize how much worrying he has done over the squalls.

Advisor, Heartland

29.

Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture.

Burata, Mario

30.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

31.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

Benson, Taylor

32.

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.

33.

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

Ward, William A.

34.

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

35.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

Hazlitt, William

36.

The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them

37.

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

Bennet, Arnold

38.

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

Brown, Les

39.

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

40.

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.

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

44.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

45.

The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.

Post, Laurens Van du

46.

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.

47.

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