Motivational Quotes

Adversity

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

- Horace

Best Quotes about Adversity

Nothing bad ever happens without equal or growth

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

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

Zwanzig, Carl

What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise.

Collins, Kitty O'neill

Adversity is, to me at least, a tonic and a bracer.

Scott, Sir Walter

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

The path of least resistance is the path of the loser.

Weltman, Phil

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

10.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

11.

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

Aesop

12.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

13.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

14.

Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.

Ward, William A.

15.

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

16.

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

Horace

17.

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

Movie, Apollo 13

18.

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

Billings, Josh

19.

I didn't know I'd have to be torn down before I could be built up.

20.

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.

21.

It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows by like a song. But the man worth while is the one who can smile, when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is troubled, And it always comes with the years. And the smiles that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears.

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

22.

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

23.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

24.

It takes a real storm in the average person's life to make him realize how much worrying he has done over the squalls.

Advisor, Heartland

25.

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

26.

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.

27.

In my room as a kid... I'd play a fighter and get knocked to the floor and come back to win.

Hoffman, Dustin

28.

Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them

29.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

30.

I would never have amounted to anything were it not for adversity. I was forced to come up the hard way.

Penney, J. C. (James Cash)

31.

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.

32.

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

Holtz, Lou

33.

Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?

Keats, John

34.

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

Hill, Napoleon

35.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

Schweitzer, Albert

36.

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

37.

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

38.

In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time.

Collier, Robert

39.

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

Kapuscinski, Ryszard

40.

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

41.

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

Brown, Les

42.

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

Propertius, Sextus

43.

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.

Proverb, Maori

44.

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

Peale, Norman Vincent

45.

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

Horace

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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