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

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

Seneca

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

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

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

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

Sting

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us--and those around us -- more effectively. Look for the learning.

Allenbaugh, Eric

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

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

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

10.

When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always get worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

Warren, Earl

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

Devito, Danny

18.

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

19.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

20.

The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

21.

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

Schweitzer, Albert

22.

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

Bacon, Francis

23.

Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture.

Burata, Mario

24.

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

Tagore, Rabindranath

25.

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

Horace

26.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

27.

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

Weltman, Phil

28.

Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, grow, grow.

Talmud, The

29.

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.

Salk, Lee

30.

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

31.

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.

32.

It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows by like a song. But the man worth while is the one who can smile, when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is troubled, And it always comes with the years. And the smiles that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears.

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

33.

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship.

Alcott, Louisa May

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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.

38.

Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them

39.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

Seneca

40.

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.

41.

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

Heraclitus

42.

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

Scott, Sir Walter

43.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

44.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

45.

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

Keats, John

46.

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

47.

Misfortunes leave wounds which bleed drop by drop even in sleep; thus little by little they train man by force and dispose him to wisdom in spite of himself. Man must learn to think of himself as a limited and dependent being; and only suffering teaches

Weil, Simone

48.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

49.

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

50.

The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.

Post, Laurens Van du