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

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

Saadi

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

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

Proverb, Chinese

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.

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

Proverb, Maori

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

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

If you're on thin ice, you might as well dance.

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.

10.

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

11.

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

12.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.

Hill, Napoleon

13.

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

14.

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

Neal, John

15.

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

Horace

16.

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

17.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Dickinson, Emily

18.

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

Scott, Sir Walter

19.

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

Kempis, Thomas

20.

We need tough days to drive us to our knees.

21.

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

22.

Your dips an falls do not confound me, half as much as your heights astound me.

23.

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

24.

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

Ziglar, Zig

25.

There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.

Mandino, Og

26.

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

Gibran, Kahlil

27.

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.

Salk, Lee

28.

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

29.

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

Seneca

30.

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

Ward, William A.

31.

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

32.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

33.

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

Movie, Apollo 13

34.

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

Zwanzig, Carl

35.

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

36.

Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you.

Gesser

37.

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

38.

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

39.

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

Aesop

40.

It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows by like a song. But the man worth while is the one who can smile, when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is troubled, And it always comes with the years. And the smiles that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears.

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

41.

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

42.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.

Bible

43.

Misfortunes leave wounds which bleed drop by drop even in sleep; thus little by little they train man by force and dispose him to wisdom in spite of himself. Man must learn to think of himself as a limited and dependent being; and only suffering teaches

Weil, Simone

44.

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

45.

You have endured worse things; God will grant an end even to these.

Virgil

46.

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

47.

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

48.

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

Proverb, Italian

49.

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

50.

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

Qur'an