Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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.

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

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

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

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

Zwanzig, Carl

There are times in everyone's life when something constructive is born out of adversity... when things seem so bad that you've got to grab your fate by the shoulders and shake it.

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

Kapuscinski, Ryszard

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains

Cady, Emilie

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

Horton, Doug

10.

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

Seneca

11.

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

Qur'an

12.

All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.

Ransom, Ralph

13.

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

14.

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

James, William

15.

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.

16.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

17.

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

18.

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

Johnson, Samuel

19.

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

Warren, Earl

20.

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

Wells, H.G.

21.

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

Hemingway, Ernest

22.

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

23.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

24.

Adversities do not make a man frail. They show what sort of man he is.

Kempis, Thomas

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.

Seligman, Martin E. P.

27.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

28.

What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise.

Collins, Kitty O'neill

29.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

30.

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

Augustine, St.

31.

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

32.

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.

Jung, Carl

33.

I got in trouble with the police, and that was a rude awakening. That was it. I'd seen the bottom of the pit, and it was time to scrape myself out of it.

Adams, Bryan

34.

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

Proverb, Italian

35.

They sicken at the calm that know the storm.

Parker, Dorothy

36.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

37.

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

Russell, Rosalind

38.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

39.

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

Saadi

40.

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

41.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

Dune, Frank Herbert

42.

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

43.

Tribulation will not hurt you, unless as it too often does; it hardens you and makes you sour, narrow and skeptical.

Chapin, Edwin Hubbel

44.

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

Ziglar, Zig

45.

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

Bible

46.

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

47.

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.

48.

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

Rogers, James

49.

Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.

Kierkegaard, S°ren

50.

If you want to win anything -- a race, your self, your life -- you have to go a little berserk.

Sheehan, George