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

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

Cushion the painful effects of hard blows by keeping the enthusiasm going strong, even if doing so requires struggle.

Peale, Norman Vincent

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

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

Schwab, Charles M.

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

We all know that sponges grow in the ocean but I wander how much deeper the ocean would be if that wasn't the case.

Ford, Henry

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

10.

Just because Fate doesn?t deal you the right cards, it doesn?t mean you should give up. It just means you have to play the cards you get to their maximum potential.

Brown, Les

11.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

12.

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

Russell, Rosalind

13.

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

14.

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

Kempis, Thomas

15.

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

Bennet, Arnold

16.

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.

17.

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

18.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Dickinson, Emily

19.

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

20.

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.

21.

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

22.

To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.

Epictetus

23.

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

James, William

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

28.

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

29.

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.

30.

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

31.

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us--and those around us -- more effectively. Look for the learning.

Allenbaugh, Eric

32.

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

Landers, Ann

33.

In times of storm, the shallowness of the root structure is revealed.

34.

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.

35.

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

Sheehan, George

36.

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

Heraclitus

37.

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Horace

41.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

42.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

43.

Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle.

Lowell, James Russell

44.

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

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.

A reasonable amount o fleas is good for a dog -- keeps him from brooding over being a dog, maybe.

Westcott, Edward Noyes

47.

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.

48.

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

Barclay, H.K.

49.

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

Seneca

50.

I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.

Walton, Sam