Motivational Quotes

Adversity

God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity still in the cloud, the oil still in the earth. How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.

- Macdonald, George

Best Quotes about Adversity

Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, Shake well before using. That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable.

Havner, Vance

No one would ever have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in a storm.

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

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

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

Gallagher, Robert C.

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

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

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

Bible

10.

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

Talmud, The

11.

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

Woolf, Virginia

12.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

Dune, Frank Herbert

13.

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

Tagore, Rabindranath

14.

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

Neal, John

15.

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

16.

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

Proverb, Maori

17.

What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise.

Collins, Kitty O'neill

18.

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

Aesop

19.

Things were bad but now they are OK.

Seymour, Harold J.

20.

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

Seneca

21.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

22.

The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don't let it get the best of you.

Rogers, Will

23.

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

24.

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''

25.

When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Ash, Mary Kay

26.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

27.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

28.

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

29.

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

Seneca

30.

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

31.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

32.

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

Kennedy, Rose F.

33.

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

Weltman, Phil

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.

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

Maltz, Maxwell

36.

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

37.

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

Wells, H.G.

38.

I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.

Walton, Sam

39.

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

Seneca

40.

One often learns more from ten days of agony than from ten years of contentment.

Shain, Merle

41.

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

Proverb, Chinese

42.

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.

43.

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

Johnson, Samuel

44.

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

Horace

45.

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

46.

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

Zwanzig, Carl

47.

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

48.

If your cup seems too bitter, if your burden seems to heavy, be sure that it is the wounded hand that is holding the cup, and that it is me who carried the cross that is carrying the burden.

49.

When I dig another out of trouble, the hole from which I lift him is the place where I bury my own.

50.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord