Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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.

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Horace

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

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

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

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

Proverb, Chinese

Do you think that you shall enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed before you?

Qur'an

Only entropy comes easy.

Mumford, Lewis

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

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.

10.

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

11.

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

Seneca

12.

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

Hemingway, Ernest

13.

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

14.

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

Horton, Doug

15.

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

16.

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

17.

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door -- or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.

Tagore, Rabindranath

18.

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

19.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

20.

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

21.

When a man gets to despair he knows that all his thinking will never get him out. He will only get out by the sheer creative effort of God. Consequently he is in the right attitude to receive from God that which he cannot gain for himself.

Chambers, Oswald

22.

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

23.

Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of character but strengthen it. Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.

Buckham, James

24.

Do not free the camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

25.

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

Weltman, Phil

26.

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

Schmidt, Walt

27.

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

Lawrence, Thomas E.

28.

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

Schwab, Charles M.

29.

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

30.

Nothing bad ever happens without equal or growth

31.

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

32.

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

Johnson

33.

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

Proverb, Italian

34.

In my room as a kid... I'd play a fighter and get knocked to the floor and come back to win.

Hoffman, Dustin

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

38.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

39.

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

40.

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

41.

Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture.

Burata, Mario

42.

Adversity is, to me at least, a tonic and a bracer.

Scott, Sir Walter

43.

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity.

Holtz, Lou

44.

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

Landers, Ann

45.

Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.

Beecher, Henry Ward

46.

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

Hazlitt, William

47.

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

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.

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

50.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.