Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Gesser

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

Proverb, Chinese

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

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

Homer

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

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. [Isaiah 48:10]

Bible

One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.

Gibran, Kahlil

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.

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

10.

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

Brown, Les

11.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

12.

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

13.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

14.

Enter through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it. [Mathew 7:13-14]

Bible

15.

When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Ash, Mary Kay

16.

Adversities do not make a man frail. They show what sort of man he is.

Kempis, Thomas

17.

Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.

Jones, Charles ''Tremendous''

18.

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

19.

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

Aesop

20.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

21.

Leonard, George

22.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

23.

You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

Schmidt, Walt

24.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Coppola, Francis Ford

25.

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

26.

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

Bacon, Francis

27.

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

28.

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

Seneca

29.

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.

Salk, Lee

30.

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

31.

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

Woolf, Virginia

32.

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

Wells, H.G.

33.

If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?

34.

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

Seneca

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

Tagore, Rabindranath

38.

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.

Jung, Carl

39.

What is to give light must endure the burning.

Frankl, Viktor E.

40.

Life has meaning only in the struggle. Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the Gods. So let us celebrate the struggle!