Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Shain, Merle

Best Quotes about Adversity

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

Horton, Doug

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.

Bible

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

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

Lawrence, Thomas E.

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

Bible

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

Neal, John

Things were bad but now they are OK.

Seymour, Harold J.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

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

10.

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

Wells, H.G.

11.

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)

12.

Had there been no difficulties and no thorns in the way, then man would have been in his primitive state and no progress made in civilization and mental culture.

Joshee, Anandabai

13.

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

14.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

15.

Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.

Ward, William A.

16.

I have often been downcast, but never in despair; I regard our hiding as a dangerous adventure, romantic and interesting at the same time. In my diary I treat all the privations as amusing. I have made up my mind now to lead a different life from other girls and, later on, different from ordinary housewives. My start has been so very full of interest, and that is the sole reason why I have to laugh at the humorous side of the most dangerous moments.

Frank, Anne

17.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

18.

Misfortunes leave wounds which bleed drop by drop even in sleep; thus little by little they train man by force and dispose him to wisdom in spite of himself. Man must learn to think of himself as a limited and dependent being; and only suffering teaches

Weil, Simone

19.

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

20.

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

21.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

22.

Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle.

Lowell, James Russell

23.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

24.

Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness --a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster-children into strength and athletic proportion.

Bryant, William C.

25.

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

Proverb, Chinese

26.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

27.

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

Peale, Norman Vincent

28.

We all know that sponges grow in the ocean but I wander how much deeper the ocean would be if that wasn't the case.

29.

We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

30.

When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Ash, Mary Kay

31.

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains

Cady, Emilie

32.

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

33.

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

Benson, Taylor

34.

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

Bible

35.

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

Johnson, Samuel

36.

Adversity is a fact of life. It can't be controlled. What we can control is how we react to it.

37.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

38.

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

Ziglar, Zig

39.

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

Augustine, St.

40.

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

Schmidt, Walt

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

44.

To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.

Epictetus

45.

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

Schwab, Charles M.

46.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

47.

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

Hemingway, Ernest

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.

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

50.

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

Sheehan, George