Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Horace

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

We all know that sponges grow in the ocean but I wander how much deeper the ocean would be if that wasn't the case.

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

Grant, Hanmer Parsons

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

Horton, Doug

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

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

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

To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.

Epictetus

10.

Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward.

Gallagher, Robert C.

11.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

12.

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

Devito, Danny

13.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

14.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

15.

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are stronger at the broken places.

Hemingway, Ernest

16.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

17.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

Seneca

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.

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.

20.

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

Sting

21.

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.

22.

You never know what events are going to transpire to get you home.

Movie, Apollo 13

23.

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

Billings, Josh

24.

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

25.

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

Bible

26.

Things were bad but now they are OK.

Seymour, Harold J.

27.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

28.

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

29.

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

30.

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

Johnson, Samuel

31.

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

Proverb, Maori

32.

If the career you have chosen has some unexpected inconvenience, console yourself by reflecting that no career is without them.

Johnson

33.

Breakdowns can create breakthroughs. Things fall apart so things can fall together.

34.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

35.

There will be no crown bearers in heaven who are not cross bearers on earth.

36.

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

Virgil

37.

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

Proverb, Chinese

38.

Nothing bad ever happens without equal or growth

39.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

Schweitzer, Albert

40.

Trouble shared is trouble halved.

Sayers, Dorothy L.

41.

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

42.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

James, William

43.

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

Brown, Les

44.

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

45.

Do you think that you shall enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed before you?

Qur'an

46.

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

Alcott, Louisa May

47.

As iron put into the fire loseth its rust and becometh clearly red-hot, so he that wholly turneth himself unto God puts off all slothfulness, and is transformed into a new man.

Kempis, Thomas

48.

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

49.

You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.

Angelis, Barbara De

50.

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.