Motivational Quotes

Adversity

Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valleys you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper.

- Mandino, Og

Best Quotes about Adversity

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.

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

Johnson, Samuel

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

Zwanzig, Carl

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

Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist -- it reduces him to his fighting weight.

Billings, Josh

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.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

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

Sting

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

10.

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

Schmidt, Walt

11.

If your knees are knocking, kneel on them.

12.

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

James, William

13.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

14.

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

15.

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

Saadi

16.

Suffering! We owe to it all that is good in us, all that gives value to life; we owe to it pity, we owe to it courage, we owe to it all the virtues.

France, Anatole

17.

Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them

18.

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.

19.

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

20.

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

21.

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

Kempis, Thomas

22.

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

23.

We need tough days to drive us to our knees.

24.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

Hazlitt, William

25.

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

Holtz, Lou

26.

Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it.

Winfrey, Oprah

27.

Tribulation will not hurt you, unless as it too often does; it hardens you and makes you sour, narrow and skeptical.

Chapin, Edwin Hubbel

28.

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

Horton, Doug

29.

When walking through the valley of shadows, remember, a shadow is cast by a Light.

Barclay, H.K.

30.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

31.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

Seneca

32.

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

33.

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

Seneca

34.

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

35.

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

Proverb, Italian

36.

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

37.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

38.

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

Weltman, Phil

39.

The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is.

Schwab, Charles M.

40.

What is to give light must endure the burning.

Frankl, Viktor E.

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

Collins, Kitty O'neill

45.

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

Neal, John

46.

All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.

Ransom, Ralph

47.

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

Propertius, Sextus

48.

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

49.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Coppola, Francis Ford

50.

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