Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Bible

When I dig another out of trouble, the hole from which I lift him is the place where I bury my own.

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

Horace

What is to give light must endure the burning.

Frankl, Viktor E.

It is odd but agitation or contest of any kind gives a rebound to my spirits and sets me up for a time.

Byron, Lord

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

Nothing bad ever happens without equal or growth

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

Rogers, James

10.

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.

11.

If we study the lives of great men and women carefully and unemotionally we find that, invariably, greatness was developed, tested and revealed through the darker periods of their lives. One of the largest tributaries of the RIVER OF GREATNESS is always the STREAM OF ADVERSITY.

Robert, Cavett

12.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

13.

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

14.

One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.

Gibran, Kahlil

15.

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

16.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

17.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.

Hill, Napoleon

18.

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

19.

Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture.

Burata, Mario

20.

Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat.

Kapuscinski, Ryszard

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

24.

As iron put into the fire loseth its rust and becometh clearly red-hot, so he that wholly turneth himself unto God puts off all slothfulness, and is transformed into a new man.

Kempis, Thomas

25.

Trouble shared is trouble halved.

Sayers, Dorothy L.

26.

When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Ash, Mary Kay

27.

The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.

Horace

28.

Had there been no difficulties and no thorns in the way, then man would have been in his primitive state and no progress made in civilization and mental culture.

Joshee, Anandabai

29.

Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this.

Homer

30.

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

Schmidt, Walt

31.

Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, grow, grow.

Talmud, The

32.

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

Proverb, Chinese

33.

Suffering! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.

France, Anatole

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.

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

Hemingway, Ernest

36.

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

37.

Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you.

Gesser

38.

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

Wells, H.G.

39.

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

40.

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

Seneca

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

45.

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

46.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Coppola, Francis Ford

47.

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

Gallagher, Robert C.

48.

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

Bacon, Francis