Motivational Quotes

Adversity

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

- Proverb, Italian

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

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

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

Humanity either makes, or breeds, or tolerates all its afflictions.

Wells, H.G.

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

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

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

Sheehan, George

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

Dune, Frank Herbert

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

10.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

Lawrence, Thomas E.

14.

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

15.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.

Gibran, Kahlil

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

19.

Anytime you suffer a setback or disappointment, put your head down and plow ahead.

Brown, Les

20.

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

21.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

22.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

23.

You may live in an imperfect world but the frontiers are not closed and the doors are not all shut.

Maltz, Maxwell

24.

When a man gets to despair he knows that all his thinking will never get him out. He will only get out by the sheer creative effort of God. Consequently he is in the right attitude to receive from God that which he cannot gain for himself.

Chambers, Oswald

25.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

26.

Only entropy comes easy.

Mumford, Lewis

27.

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

28.

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

29.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

30.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

Seneca

31.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

32.

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.

33.

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

34.

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

Hill, Napoleon

35.

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

36.

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

Chapin, Edwin Hubbel

37.

I used to hurt so badly that I'd ask God why, what have I done to deserve any of this? I feel now He was preparing me for this, for the future. That's the way I see it.

Jackson, Janet

38.

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

Devito, Danny

39.

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

Talmud, The

40.

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

Kennedy, Rose F.

41.

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

Homer

42.

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

Shain, Merle

43.

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship.

Alcott, Louisa May

44.

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

Barclay, H.K.

45.

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.

46.

Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat.

Kapuscinski, Ryszard

47.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

48.

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

49.

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

Hoffman, Dustin

50.

A reasonable amount o fleas is good for a dog -- keeps him from brooding over being a dog, maybe.

Westcott, Edward Noyes