Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Sheehan, George

Best Quotes about Adversity

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.

Paige, Leroy ''Satchel''

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

Some people bear three kinds of trouble -- the ones they've had, the ones they have, and the ones they expect to have.

Hale, Edward Everett

The path of least resistance is the path of the loser.

Weltman, Phil

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

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''

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

Qur'an

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

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

Horace

10.

The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.

Smiles, Samuel

11.

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

Rogers, James

12.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

13.

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

14.

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

Seneca

15.

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

Proverb, Chinese

16.

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

Brown, Les

17.

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us--and those around us -- more effectively. Look for the learning.

Allenbaugh, Eric

18.

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

Hemingway, Ernest

19.

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

20.

Trouble shared is trouble halved.

Sayers, Dorothy L.

21.

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

Neal, John

22.

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

23.

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

Seneca

24.

Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it.

Winfrey, Oprah

25.

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

26.

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

Colton, Charles Caleb

27.

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Coppola, Francis Ford

28.

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

Richter, Jean Paul

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

33.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

34.

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.

35.

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

Horace

36.

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.

37.

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

Wells, H.G.

38.

Nothing bad ever happens without equal or growth

39.

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

Grant, Hanmer Parsons

40.

It takes a real storm in the average person's life to make him realize how much worrying he has done over the squalls.

Advisor, Heartland

41.

When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.

Ash, Mary Kay

42.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

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.

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.

45.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

46.

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

47.

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

Jung, Carl

48.

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.

49.

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

Russell, Rosalind

50.

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

Saadi