Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Horace

Best Quotes about Adversity

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle.

Lowell, James Russell

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

Dune, Frank Herbert

I have often been downcast, but never in despair; I regard our hiding as a dangerous adventure, romantic and interesting at the same time. In my diary I treat all the privations as amusing. I have made up my mind now to lead a different life from other girls and, later on, different from ordinary housewives. My start has been so very full of interest, and that is the sole reason why I have to laugh at the humorous side of the most dangerous moments.

Frank, Anne

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

Qur'an

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

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.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Dickinson, Emily

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

10.

Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.

Beecher, Henry Ward

11.

If your knees are knocking, kneel on them.

12.

Things were bad but now they are OK.

Seymour, Harold J.

13.

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

Devito, Danny

14.

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

Tagore, Rabindranath

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

Walton, Sam

18.

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

Peale, Norman Vincent

19.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

20.

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

21.

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

Augustine, St.

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

Seneca

28.

It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one's own advantage and to that of one's craft that a large part of genius consists.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

29.

Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, Shake well before using. That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable.

Havner, Vance

30.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

31.

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

32.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

33.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

Ford, Henry

34.

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

Johnson

35.

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

Seneca

36.

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

37.

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

38.

There will be no crown bearers in heaven who are not cross bearers on earth.

39.

Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it.

Winfrey, Oprah

40.

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

41.

We say, sorrow, disaster, calamity. God says,chastening and it sounds sweet to him though it is a discord to our ears. Don't faint when you are rebuked, and don't despise the chastening of the Lord. In your patience possess your souls.

Chambers, Oswald

42.

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

43.

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

Billings, Josh

44.

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

Seneca

45.

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

Horace

46.

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)

47.

Adversity is a great teacher, but this teacher makes us pay dearly for its instruction; and often the profit we derive, is not worth the price we paid.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

48.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

49.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

Hazlitt, William

50.

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

Schweitzer, Albert