Motivational Quotes

Adversity

We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.

- Grant, Hanmer Parsons

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Proverb, Chinese

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

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

Peale, Norman Vincent

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

Johnson

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

Billings, Josh

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.

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

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

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

10.

There is in every woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

Irving, Washington

11.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

Seneca

12.

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?

Kennedy, Rose F.

13.

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

14.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

15.

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

16.

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

17.

Many miles away there's a shadow on the door of a cottage on the Shore of a dark Scottish lake.

Sting

18.

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

19.

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

20.

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

21.

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

Sheehan, George

22.

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

23.

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

24.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

25.

You never know what events are going to transpire to get you home.

Movie, Apollo 13

26.

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.

27.

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

Landers, Ann

28.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

29.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

30.

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

31.

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

Westcott, Edward Noyes

32.

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

Horace

33.

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

Seneca

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Heraclitus

37.

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

Bennet, Arnold

38.

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

39.

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

40.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

Tagore, Rabindranath

41.

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

Holtz, Lou

42.

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

Zwanzig, Carl

43.

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.

Jung, Carl

44.

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.

45.

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

46.

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains

Cady, Emilie

47.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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