Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Proverb, Maori

Best Quotes about Adversity

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.

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

Seneca

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

Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist -- it reduces him to his fighting weight.

Billings, Josh

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

Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of character but strengthen it. Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.

Buckham, James

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

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

Kapuscinski, Ryszard

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

10.

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

Heraclitus

11.

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

Grant, Hanmer Parsons

12.

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

Seneca

13.

If your knees are knocking, kneel on them.

14.

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

Proverb, Maori

15.

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

Devito, Danny

16.

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

Hoffman, Dustin

17.

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

Proverb, Chinese

18.

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

19.

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

Horace

20.

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

21.

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

Horace

22.

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

23.

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

Sting

24.

When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

Russell, Rosalind

25.

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

26.

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

Warren, Earl

27.

We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

28.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

29.

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

30.

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

Maltz, Maxwell

31.

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

32.

Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.

Rogers, James

33.

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

Neal, John

34.

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

35.

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

Kempis, Thomas

36.

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

Bennet, Arnold

37.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

38.

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

39.

I would never have amounted to anything were it not for adversity. I was forced to come up the hard way.

Penney, J. C. (James Cash)

40.

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

Ziglar, Zig

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

44.

Life has meaning only in the struggle. Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the Gods. So let us celebrate the struggle!

Swahili Warrior Song

45.

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

46.

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

47.

I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.

Walton, Sam

48.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

49.

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. [Isaiah 48:10]