Motivational Quotes

Adversity

It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one's own advantage and to that of one's craft that a large part of genius consists.

- Lichtenberg, Georg C.

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Brown, Les

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

Kennedy, Rose F.

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

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

Am I willing to give up what I have in order to be what I am not yet? Am I able to follow the spirit of love into the desert? It is a frightening and sacred moment. There is no return. One's life is charged forever. It is the fire that gives us our shape.

Richards, Mary Caroline

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

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

Tagore, Rabindranath

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

Gibran, Kahlil

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

10.

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

11.

The stars are constantly shining, but often we do not see them until the dark hours.

12.

When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Ash, Mary Kay

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.

Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them

15.

A heart well prepared for adversity in bad times hopes, and in good times fears for a change in fortune.

Horace

16.

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

Bible

17.

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.

18.

A man is insensible to the relish of prosperity until he has tasted adversity.

Saadi

19.

Nothing splendid was ever created in cold blood. Heat is required to forge anything. Every great accomplishment is the story of a flaming heart.

Glasgow, Arnold H.

20.

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

21.

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

22.

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

23.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

24.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

25.

We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.

Grant, Hanmer Parsons

26.

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.

Salk, Lee

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.

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

Talmud, The

29.

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

30.

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

31.

We need tough days to drive us to our knees.

32.

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

33.

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

34.

Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture.

Burata, Mario

35.

Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward.

Gallagher, Robert C.

36.

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

37.

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

Bacon, Francis

38.

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

39.

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.

Proverb, Maori

40.

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

Sheehan, George

41.

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

Aesop

42.

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

43.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

44.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

45.

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

46.

Breakdowns can create breakthroughs. Things fall apart so things can fall together.

47.

A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.

Neal, John

48.

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

49.

There are three modes of bearing the ills of life, by indifference, by philosophy, and by religion.

Colton, Charles Caleb

50.

Only entropy comes easy.

Mumford, Lewis