Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Schwab, Charles M.

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

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

Shain, Merle

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

Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.

Colton, Charles Caleb

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

Heraclitus

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

Schwab, Charles M.

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

Gallagher, Robert C.

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

Seneca

Your dips an falls do not confound me, half as much as your heights astound me.

10.

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

Virgil

11.

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

12.

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

Aesop

13.

Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds; all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.

Hale, Edward Everett

14.

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

15.

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

Walton, Sam

16.

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

17.

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

Lawrence, Thomas E.

18.

Every man has a rainy corner of his life whence comes foul weather which follows him.

Richter, Jean Paul

19.

Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer.

Landers, Ann

20.

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

21.

In times of storm, the shallowness of the root structure is revealed.

22.

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

Warren, Earl

23.

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

Sting

24.

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

25.

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

26.

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

Wells, H.G.

27.

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

28.

The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them.

Cocteau, Jean

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

Barclay, H.K.

32.

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

33.

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

Horace

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Grant, Hanmer Parsons

37.

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

Horace

38.

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

39.

In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time.

Collier, Robert

40.

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

41.

Every hardship; every joy; every temptation is a challenge of the spirit; that the human soul may prove itself. The great chain of necessity wherewith we are bound has divine significance; and nothing happens which has not some service in working out the sublime destiny of the human soul.

Ford, Elias A.

42.

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

Alcott, Louisa May

43.

Two frogs fell into a bowl of cream. One didn't panic, he relaxed and drowned. The other kicked and struggled so much that the cream turned to butter and he walked out.

44.

Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?

Keats, John

45.

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

46.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

47.

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

Westcott, Edward Noyes

48.

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.

49.

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

Devito, Danny

50.

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

Johnson, Samuel