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

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

Maltz, Maxwell

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

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

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valleys you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper.

Mandino, Og

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

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

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

Bible

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

Hemingway, Ernest

10.

We say, sorrow, disaster, calamity. God says,chastening and it sounds sweet to him though it is a discord to our ears. Don't faint when you are rebuked, and don't despise the chastening of the Lord. In your patience possess your souls.

Chambers, Oswald

11.

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

12.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

Dune, Frank Herbert

13.

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

14.

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)

15.

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

Horace

16.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Dickinson, Emily

17.

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

Homer

18.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

19.

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

Brown, Les

20.

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

21.

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.

22.

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

Saadi

23.

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.

24.

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

25.

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

26.

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

Gesser

27.

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

Holtz, Lou

28.

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

Devito, Danny

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

34.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

35.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

36.

Cushion the painful effects of hard blows by keeping the enthusiasm going strong, even if doing so requires struggle.

Peale, Norman Vincent

37.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.

Gibran, Kahlil

38.

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

Grant, Hanmer Parsons

39.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Coppola, Francis Ford

40.

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

41.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

42.

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

Ziglar, Zig

43.

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains

Cady, Emilie

44.

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

45.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

46.

When I dig another out of trouble, the hole from which I lift him is the place where I bury my own.

47.

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?

Kennedy, Rose F.

48.

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

Johnson