Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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.

Best Quotes about Adversity

Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, Shake well before using. That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable.

Havner, Vance

Only entropy comes easy.

Mumford, Lewis

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.

Bacon, Francis

The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them.

Cocteau, Jean

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

I have often been downcast, but never in despair; I regard our hiding as a dangerous adventure, romantic and interesting at the same time. In my diary I treat all the privations as amusing. I have made up my mind now to lead a different life from other girls and, later on, different from ordinary housewives. My start has been so very full of interest, and that is the sole reason why I have to laugh at the humorous side of the most dangerous moments.

Frank, Anne

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

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

Sting

10.

One likes people much better when they're battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.

Woolf, Virginia

11.

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

Alcott, Louisa May

12.

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

13.

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

14.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

15.

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

Barclay, H.K.

16.

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.

17.

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

Sheehan, George

18.

You may live in an imperfect world but the frontiers are not closed and the doors are not all shut.

Maltz, Maxwell

19.

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

20.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

21.

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

Horace

22.

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

Russell, Rosalind

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

27.

Misfortunes leave wounds which bleed drop by drop even in sleep; thus little by little they train man by force and dispose him to wisdom in spite of himself. Man must learn to think of himself as a limited and dependent being; and only suffering teaches

Weil, Simone

28.

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

29.

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.

30.

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

31.

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

Landers, Ann

32.

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

33.

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

34.

People are like stained -- glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within

Ross, Elizabeth Kubler

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

Kempis, Thomas

38.

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

39.

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

Seneca

40.

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.

Salk, Lee

41.

Tribulation will not hurt you, unless as it too often does; it hardens you and makes you sour, narrow and skeptical.

Chapin, Edwin Hubbel

42.

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

Shain, Merle

43.

What is to give light must endure the burning.

Frankl, Viktor E.

44.

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

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

49.

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

Bible

50.

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

Schmidt, Walt