Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

Best Quotes about Adversity

It's a matter of ABC: When we encounter ADVERSITY, we react by thinking about it. Our thoughts rapidly congeal into BELIEFS. These beliefs may become so habitual we don't even realize we have them unless we stop to focus on them. And they don't just sit there idly; they have CONSEQUENCES. The beliefs are the direct cause of what we feel and what we do next. They can spell the difference between dejection and giving up, on the one hand, and well-being and constructive action on the other. The first step is to see the connection between adversity, belief, and consequence. The second step is to see how the ABCs operate every day in your own life.

Seligman, Martin E. P.

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.

They sicken at the calm that know the storm.

Parker, Dorothy

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

Talmud, The

No man is more unhappy than the one who is never in adversity; the greatest affliction of life is never to be afflicted.

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.

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

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

Proverb, Maori

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

Heraclitus

10.

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

11.

Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds; all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.

Hale, Edward Everett

12.

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.

Salk, Lee

13.

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

14.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

Billings, Josh

18.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

19.

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.

20.

Adversity is a fact of life. It can't be controlled. What we can control is how we react to it.

21.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

22.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

23.

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

Tagore, Rabindranath

24.

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

Ward, William A.

25.

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

26.

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

James, William

27.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

28.

Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for it.

Warren, Earl

29.

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

Devito, Danny

30.

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

Horace

31.

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

Alcott, Louisa May

32.

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.

Jung, Carl

33.

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

34.

Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat.

Kapuscinski, Ryszard

35.

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

36.

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

37.

A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.

Neal, John

38.

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

39.

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.

40.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

41.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

42.

If you're on thin ice, you might as well dance.

43.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

44.

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

Gallagher, Robert C.

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 got in trouble with the police, and that was a rude awakening. That was it. I'd seen the bottom of the pit, and it was time to scrape myself out of it.

Adams, Bryan

47.

It is odd but agitation or contest of any kind gives a rebound to my spirits and sets me up for a time.

Byron, Lord

48.

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.

Scott, Sir Walter

49.

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

50.

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

Seneca