Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

Best Quotes about Adversity

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

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

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

Qur'an

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

Wells, H.G.

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

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

Proverb, Chinese

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

Enter through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it. [Mathew 7:13-14]

Bible

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

10.

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

11.

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

12.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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.

16.

Anytime you suffer a setback or disappointment, put your head down and plow ahead.

Brown, Les

17.

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

Horace

18.

Men often bear little grievances with less courage than they do large misfortunes.

Aesop

19.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.

Bible

20.

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

21.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

Dune, Frank Herbert

22.

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

23.

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.

Salk, Lee

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

27.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

28.

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.

29.

He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatest of the soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported without the latter.

Fielding, Henry

30.

Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.

Ziglar, Zig

31.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

32.

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

Gallagher, Robert C.

33.

There are three modes of bearing the ills of life, by indifference, by philosophy, and by religion.

Colton, Charles Caleb

34.

Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.

Rogers, James

35.

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

36.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

37.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

38.

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

Kempis, Thomas

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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

Heraclitus

42.

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

Hemingway, Ernest

43.

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

44.

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

James, William

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

Benson, Taylor

48.

If you can keep your head about you when all about you are losing theirs, its just possible you haven't grasped the situation.

Kerr, Jean

49.

Every man has a rainy corner of his life whence comes foul weather which follows him.

Richter, Jean Paul

50.

All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.

Ransom, Ralph