Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Seneca

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

Wells, H.G.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

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

Scott, Sir Walter

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

They sicken at the calm that know the storm.

Parker, Dorothy

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

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.

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

11.

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.

12.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

13.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

14.

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

15.

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

16.

Two frogs fell into a bowl of cream. One didn't panic, he relaxed and drowned. The other kicked and struggled so much that the cream turned to butter and he walked out.

17.

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

Keats, John

18.

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

19.

Nothing bad ever happens without equal or growth

20.

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

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

Qur'an

24.

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.

25.

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

Proverb, Italian

26.

Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for it.

Warren, Earl

27.

You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.

Angelis, Barbara De

28.

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.

29.

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

30.

When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

Russell, Rosalind

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

Billings, Josh

34.

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

35.

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

36.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

37.

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

38.

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

Movie, Apollo 13

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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

Heraclitus

42.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

43.

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

44.

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

45.

Tribulation will not hurt you, unless as it too often does; it hardens you and makes you sour, narrow and skeptical.

Chapin, Edwin Hubbel

46.

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

Hazlitt, William

47.

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

Seneca

48.

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

Brown, Les

49.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

Dune, Frank Herbert

50.

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