Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Saadi

Best Quotes about Adversity

We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.

Beecher, Henry Ward

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

Virgil

If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?

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

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

James, William

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

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

Lawrence, Thomas E.

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

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

10.

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

Johnson, Samuel

11.

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

Weltman, Phil

12.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Dickinson, Emily

13.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

14.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

15.

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

Seneca

16.

Trouble shared is trouble halved.

Sayers, Dorothy L.

17.

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

18.

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.

19.

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

Proverb, Chinese

20.

Things were bad but now they are OK.

Seymour, Harold J.

21.

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

Propertius, Sextus

22.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

23.

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

Holtz, Lou

24.

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

25.

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

Billings, Josh

26.

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.

27.

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

28.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

29.

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

30.

Men often bear little grievances with less courage than they do large misfortunes.

Aesop

31.

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.

32.

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

Warren, Earl

33.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Paine, Thomas

34.

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

Homer

35.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

36.

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

Gesser

37.

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

38.

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

Rogers, James

39.

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

40.

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

Proverb, Italian

41.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

Seneca

42.

The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.

Horace

43.

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

44.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

45.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

46.

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

Saadi

47.

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