Motivational Quotes

Adversity

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

- Ford, Henry

Best Quotes about Adversity

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

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

Nothing splendid was ever created in cold blood. Heat is required to forge anything. Every great accomplishment is the story of a flaming heart.

Glasgow, Arnold H.

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

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

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

James, William

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

A man is insensible to the relish of prosperity until he has tasted adversity.

Saadi

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

Kempis, Thomas

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

Neal, John

13.

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.

14.

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

15.

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

Woolf, Virginia

16.

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

17.

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.

18.

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

19.

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

20.

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

Shain, Merle

21.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

22.

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.

23.

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.

24.

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

Warren, Earl

25.

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

26.

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

Billings, Josh

27.

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

28.

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

Benson, Taylor

29.

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

Augustine, St.

30.

We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.

Beecher, Henry Ward

31.

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

Heraclitus

32.

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

Bacon, Francis

33.

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

34.

Humanity either makes, or breeds, or tolerates all its afflictions.

Wells, H.G.

35.

Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture.

Burata, Mario

36.

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

37.

Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?

Keats, John

38.

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

Horace

39.

If your knees are knocking, kneel on them.

40.

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)

41.

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

42.

You have endured worse things; God will grant an end even to these.

Virgil

43.

Trouble shared is trouble halved.

Sayers, Dorothy L.

44.

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains

Cady, Emilie

45.

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

46.

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

47.

I used to hurt so badly that I'd ask God why, what have I done to deserve any of this? I feel now He was preparing me for this, for the future. That's the way I see it.

Jackson, Janet

48.

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

49.

If the going is real easy, beware, you may be headed down hill and don't know it.

50.

The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don't let it get the best of you.

Rogers, Will