Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Keats, John

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

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

Hill, Napoleon

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

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

Adversity is a fact of life. It can't be controlled. What we can control is how we react to it.

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

Heraclitus

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

Aesop

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

Johnson

They that sow in tears shall reap joy. [Psalms 126:5]

Bible

10.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

Benson, Taylor

11.

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

12.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

13.

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

Propertius, Sextus

14.

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

Sting

15.

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.

16.

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.

17.

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

18.

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

Schweitzer, Albert

19.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

20.

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

Sheehan, George

21.

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

22.

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

Kennedy, Rose F.

23.

Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.

Colton, Charles Caleb

24.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

25.

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

Maltz, Maxwell

26.

Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you.

Gesser

27.

Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of character but strengthen it. Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.

Buckham, James

28.

Trouble shared is trouble halved.

Sayers, Dorothy L.

29.

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

Wells, H.G.

30.

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

31.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Coppola, Francis Ford

32.

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.

Salk, Lee

33.

There could be no honor in a sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat.

Lawrence, Thomas E.

34.

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

35.

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

36.

Only entropy comes easy.

Mumford, Lewis

37.

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

38.

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

Movie, Apollo 13

39.

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

40.

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

41.

Do not free the camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

42.

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

Homer

43.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

44.

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

Russell, Rosalind

45.

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

46.

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

47.

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

Horace

48.

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

49.

What is to give light must endure the burning.

Frankl, Viktor E.

50.

People are like stained -- glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within

Ross, Elizabeth Kubler