Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Proverb, Chinese

Best Quotes about Adversity

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

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

Chapin, Edwin Hubbel

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

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

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

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

Horace

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

Schmidt, Walt

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

Weltman, Phil

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?

Kennedy, Rose F.

10.

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.

11.

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

Neal, John

12.

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

13.

We need tough days to drive us to our knees.

14.

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

15.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

16.

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

17.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

18.

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

19.

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

Zwanzig, Carl

20.

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

Shain, Merle

21.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

22.

The greatest difficulties lie where we are not looking for them.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

23.

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

Warren, Earl

24.

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

Hazlitt, William

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

Schwab, Charles M.

28.

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

29.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

30.

Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

31.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

32.

They that sow in tears shall reap joy. [Psalms 126:5]

Bible

33.

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

34.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

35.

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

Gesser

36.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

37.

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

Virgil

38.

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

Devito, Danny

39.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

40.

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

41.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, This is a misfortune but To bear this worthily is good fortune.

Aurelius, Marcus

42.

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

Benson, Taylor

43.

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

44.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

45.

In my room as a kid... I'd play a fighter and get knocked to the floor and come back to win.

Hoffman, Dustin

46.

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.

47.

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

48.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

49.

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

50.

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