Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Heraclitus

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Horace

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

Homer

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.

Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

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

Walton, Sam

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

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

Kapuscinski, Ryszard

Every hardship; every joy; every temptation is a challenge of the spirit; that the human soul may prove itself. The great chain of necessity wherewith we are bound has divine significance; and nothing happens which has not some service in working out the sublime destiny of the human soul.

Ford, Elias A.

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

10.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

11.

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

Bennet, Arnold

12.

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

13.

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

14.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Dickinson, Emily

15.

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

16.

We need tough days to drive us to our knees.

17.

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

Hill, Napoleon

18.

God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity still in the cloud, the oil still in the earth. How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.

Macdonald, George

19.

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

20.

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

21.

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

Hemingway, Ernest

22.

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

Johnson, Samuel

23.

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

24.

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

25.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

26.

Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness --a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster-children into strength and athletic proportion.

Bryant, William C.

27.

Breakdowns can create breakthroughs. Things fall apart so things can fall together.

28.

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

29.

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

Horton, Doug

30.

It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest.

Saying, Greek

31.

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

Gibran, Kahlil

32.

The seaman tells stories of winds, the ploughman of bulls; the soldier details his wounds, the shepherd his sheep.

Propertius, Sextus

33.

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

34.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

35.

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.

36.

Trouble shared is trouble halved.

Sayers, Dorothy L.

37.

Things were bad but now they are OK.

Seymour, Harold J.

38.

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.

39.

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

Devito, Danny

40.

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

41.

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

42.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

43.

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

Schmidt, Walt

44.

You may live in an imperfect world but the frontiers are not closed and the doors are not all shut.

Maltz, Maxwell

45.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

Seneca

46.

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

Barclay, H.K.

47.

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

Augustine, St.

48.

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

Bible

49.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

50.

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