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

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

Scott, Sir Walter

We need tough days to drive us to our knees.

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

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

Warren, Earl

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

Things were bad but now they are OK.

Seymour, Harold J.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

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

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

10.

If your knees are knocking, kneel on them.

11.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

12.

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

Talmud, The

13.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

Dune, Frank Herbert

14.

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

Tagore, Rabindranath

15.

It's a matter of ABC: When we encounter ADVERSITY, we react by thinking about it. Our thoughts rapidly congeal into BELIEFS. These beliefs may become so habitual we don't even realize we have them unless we stop to focus on them. And they don't just sit there idly; they have CONSEQUENCES. The beliefs are the direct cause of what we feel and what we do next. They can spell the difference between dejection and giving up, on the one hand, and well-being and constructive action on the other. The first step is to see the connection between adversity, belief, and consequence. The second step is to see how the ABCs operate every day in your own life.

Seligman, Martin E. P.

16.

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

17.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

18.

Trouble shared is trouble halved.

Sayers, Dorothy L.

19.

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

20.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

21.

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

Ward, William A.

22.

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

23.

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

24.

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

Proverb, Italian

25.

There could be no honor in a sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat.

Lawrence, Thomas E.

26.

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

27.

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

Schmidt, Walt

28.

We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.

Beecher, Henry Ward

29.

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

30.

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.

31.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Coppola, Francis Ford

32.

Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?

Keats, John

33.

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

34.

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

35.

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

Sheehan, George

36.

It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish.

Heraclitus

37.

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

38.

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

Devito, Danny

39.

Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.

Beecher, Henry Ward

40.

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.

Bacon, Francis

41.

Adversity is a great teacher, but this teacher makes us pay dearly for its instruction; and often the profit we derive, is not worth the price we paid.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

42.

There is in every woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

Irving, Washington

43.

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

Bennet, Arnold

44.

We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.

Grant, Hanmer Parsons

45.

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

Shain, Merle

46.

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

47.

If the going is real easy, beware, you may be headed down hill and don't know it.

48.

There are times in everyone's life when something constructive is born out of adversity... when things seem so bad that you've got to grab your fate by the shoulders and shake it.

49.

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.

Jung, Carl

50.

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