Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Proverb, Chinese

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

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

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

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

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

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.

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

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

Neal, John

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

10.

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

11.

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

Jung, Carl

12.

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.

13.

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

14.

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

15.

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

Tagore, Rabindranath

16.

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

Propertius, Sextus

17.

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

Seneca

18.

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

Lawrence, Thomas E.

19.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

20.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

21.

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

Peale, Norman Vincent

22.

Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this.

Homer

23.

As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it.

Horace

24.

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

25.

Nothing bad ever happens without equal or growth

26.

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

27.

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

Proverb, Chinese

28.

If we study the lives of great men and women carefully and unemotionally we find that, invariably, greatness was developed, tested and revealed through the darker periods of their lives. One of the largest tributaries of the RIVER OF GREATNESS is always the STREAM OF ADVERSITY.

Robert, Cavett

29.

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

Bacon, Francis

30.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

31.

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

32.

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

Seneca

33.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

34.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

35.

Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them

36.

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

37.

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

Sting

38.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

39.

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

Holtz, Lou

40.

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

Johnson, Samuel

41.

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

42.

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

Barclay, H.K.

43.

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.

44.

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

Saadi

45.

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

46.

The stars are constantly shining, but often we do not see them until the dark hours.

47.

It takes a real storm in the average person's life to make him realize how much worrying he has done over the squalls.

Advisor, Heartland

48.

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

Sheehan, George

49.

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

Virgil

50.

Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.

Kierkegaard, S°ren