Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

Best Quotes about Adversity

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains

Cady, Emilie

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

Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.

Jones, Charles ''Tremendous''

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

Shain, Merle

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

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

Nothing splendid was ever created in cold blood. Heat is required to forge anything. Every great accomplishment is the story of a flaming heart.

Glasgow, Arnold H.

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

Augustine, St.

10.

What is to give light must endure the burning.

Frankl, Viktor E.

11.

When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Ash, Mary Kay

12.

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

James, William

13.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.

14.

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

15.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

16.

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

Bible

17.

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

Kapuscinski, Ryszard

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.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

20.

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

Seneca

21.

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

Warren, Earl

22.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

Benson, Taylor

23.

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

Devito, Danny

24.

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

25.

Enter through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it. [Mathew 7:13-14]

Bible

26.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

Tagore, Rabindranath

27.

If your knees are knocking, kneel on them.

28.

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.

29.

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

30.

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

Russell, Rosalind

31.

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

Talmud, The

32.

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

Brown, Les

33.

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

Virgil

34.

Trouble shared is trouble halved.

Sayers, Dorothy L.

35.

Just because Fate doesn?t deal you the right cards, it doesn?t mean you should give up. It just means you have to play the cards you get to their maximum potential.

Brown, Les

36.

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

37.

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

Seneca

38.

The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.

Post, Laurens Van du

39.

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

40.

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

Hoffman, Dustin

41.

One likes people much better when they're battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.

Woolf, Virginia

42.

You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

Schmidt, Walt

43.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Coppola, Francis Ford

44.

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

45.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

46.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

47.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

48.

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

49.

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

Neal, John

50.

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.