Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

- Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

Best Quotes about Adversity

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity still in the cloud, the oil still in the earth. How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.

Macdonald, George

He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.

Fosdick, Harry Emerson

If you can keep your head about you when all about you are losing theirs, its just possible you haven't grasped the situation.

Kerr, Jean

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.

Bacon, Francis

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

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

Ward, William A.

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

Shain, Merle

It would not be better if things happened to men just as they wish.

Heraclitus

10.

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

Weltman, Phil

11.

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

12.

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

13.

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

Virgil

14.

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

15.

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

16.

The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.

Horace

17.

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

Seneca

18.

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

19.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

20.

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

Wells, H.G.

21.

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

22.

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

James, William

23.

The stars are constantly shining, but often we do not see them until the dark hours.

24.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

25.

If you're on thin ice, you might as well dance.

26.

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

27.

It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest.

Saying, Greek

28.

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

Jung, Carl

29.

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.

30.

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

Rogers, James

31.

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.

Proverb, Maori

32.

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

33.

Not everything which is bad comes to hurt us.

Proverb, Italian

34.

Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.

Seneca

35.

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

36.

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

37.

Adversity is, to me at least, a tonic and a bracer.

Scott, Sir Walter

38.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

39.

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

40.

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

41.

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

Schmidt, Walt

42.

Every silver lining has a cloud.

Avon

43.

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