Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

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

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

Sting

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.

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

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

Bennet, Arnold

Adversity is a fact of life. It can't be controlled. What we can control is how we react to it.

Some people bear three kinds of trouble -- the ones they've had, the ones they have, and the ones they expect to have.

Hale, Edward Everett

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.

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

Warren, Earl

11.

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains

Cady, Emilie

12.

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

Talmud, The

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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.

16.

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

17.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

18.

I would never have amounted to anything were it not for adversity. I was forced to come up the hard way.

Penney, J. C. (James Cash)

19.

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

20.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

Benson, Taylor

21.

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

22.

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

Neal, John

23.

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

24.

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

25.

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

Weltman, Phil

26.

What is to give light must endure the burning.

Frankl, Viktor E.

27.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

28.

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

29.

He who knows the darkness shall learn to live in the light.

30.

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

Sheehan, George

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

Qur'an

34.

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.

Salk, Lee

35.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

36.

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

37.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

38.

He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatest of the soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported without the latter.

Fielding, Henry

39.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

40.

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

41.

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

Walton, Sam

42.

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

Propertius, Sextus

43.

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

Seneca

44.

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

45.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

46.

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

47.

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.

48.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

49.

Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.

Ziglar, Zig

50.

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