Motivational Quotes

Adversity

As iron put into the fire loseth its rust and becometh clearly red-hot, so he that wholly turneth himself unto God puts off all slothfulness, and is transformed into a new man.

- Kempis, Thomas

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.

Bacon, Francis

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

Out of love and hatred, out of earnings and borrowings and leadings and losses; out of sickness and pain; out of wooing and worshipping; out of traveling and voting and watching and caring; out of disgrace and contempt, comes our tuition in the serene and beautiful laws.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Peale, Norman Vincent

Things were bad but now they are OK.

Seymour, Harold J.

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

Seneca

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

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

10.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Dickinson, Emily

11.

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

12.

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

Scott, Sir Walter

13.

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

Weltman, Phil

14.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

15.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

16.

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

17.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

18.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

19.

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

Ward, William A.

20.

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

Gesser

21.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

22.

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

23.

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

Holtz, Lou

24.

It is odd but agitation or contest of any kind gives a rebound to my spirits and sets me up for a time.

Byron, Lord

25.

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

26.

Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.

Kierkegaard, S°ren

27.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

28.

Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.

Rogers, James

29.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

Proverb, Chinese

30.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

31.

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

Aesop

32.

One likes people much better when they're battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.

Woolf, Virginia

33.

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

Heraclitus

34.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

35.

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

36.

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

37.

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

Horton, Doug

38.

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

Proverb, Italian

39.

Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer.

Landers, Ann

40.

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

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

Horace

44.

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

45.

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

Hill, Napoleon

46.

A reasonable amount o fleas is good for a dog -- keeps him from brooding over being a dog, maybe.

Westcott, Edward Noyes

47.

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

48.

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

Sheehan, George

49.

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

Qur'an

50.

Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valleys you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper.

Mandino, Og