Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Maltz, Maxwell

Best Quotes about Adversity

We all know that sponges grow in the ocean but I wander how much deeper the ocean would be if that wasn't the case.

Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness --a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster-children into strength and athletic proportion.

Bryant, William C.

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

Proverb, Chinese

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

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Paine, Thomas

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

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

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.

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

Qur'an

11.

Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat.

Kapuscinski, Ryszard

12.

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

Weltman, Phil

13.

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

Alcott, Louisa May

14.

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

Woolf, Virginia

15.

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

16.

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door -- or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.

Tagore, Rabindranath

17.

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

Schweitzer, Albert

18.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

19.

Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them

20.

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

Holtz, Lou

21.

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

Scott, Sir Walter

22.

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

23.

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

Schmidt, Walt

24.

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

Ward, William A.

25.

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

Augustine, St.

26.

You never know what events are going to transpire to get you home.

Movie, Apollo 13

27.

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

28.

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

Kempis, Thomas

29.

When a man gets to despair he knows that all his thinking will never get him out. He will only get out by the sheer creative effort of God. Consequently he is in the right attitude to receive from God that which he cannot gain for himself.

Chambers, Oswald

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

33.

I got in trouble with the police, and that was a rude awakening. That was it. I'd seen the bottom of the pit, and it was time to scrape myself out of it.

Adams, Bryan

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.

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

36.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

37.

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

Peale, Norman Vincent

38.

If your knees are knocking, kneel on them.

39.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

James, William

40.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

41.

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

Bible

42.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

43.

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.

44.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

45.

The seaman tells stories of winds, the ploughman of bulls; the soldier details his wounds, the shepherd his sheep.

Propertius, Sextus

46.

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

Seneca

47.

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

48.

It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.

Bennet, Arnold

49.

To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.

Epictetus

50.

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