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

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

Horace

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.

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

Benson, Taylor

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

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

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

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.

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.

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

10.

Trouble shared is trouble halved.

Sayers, Dorothy L.

11.

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

Zwanzig, Carl

12.

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

Lawrence, Thomas E.

13.

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

14.

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

15.

I used to hurt so badly that I'd ask God why, what have I done to deserve any of this? I feel now He was preparing me for this, for the future. That's the way I see it.

Jackson, Janet

16.

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

17.

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

Horace

18.

One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.

Gibran, Kahlil

19.

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

Kennedy, Rose F.

20.

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

Proverb, Chinese

21.

Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?

Keats, John

22.

If your knees are knocking, kneel on them.

23.

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

Bacon, Francis

24.

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

Schmidt, Walt

25.

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

26.

Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist -- it reduces him to his fighting weight.

Billings, Josh

27.

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

Ziglar, Zig

28.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

29.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

30.

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

31.

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

Glasgow, Arnold H.

32.

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

33.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

Hazlitt, William

34.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Dickinson, Emily

35.

Many miles away there's a shadow on the door of a cottage on the Shore of a dark Scottish lake.

Sting

36.

There is in every woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

Irving, Washington

37.

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

38.

Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward.

Gallagher, Robert C.

39.

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

Devito, Danny

40.

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

Augustine, St.

41.

Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds; all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.

Hale, Edward Everett

42.

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains

Cady, Emilie

43.

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

44.

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

45.

He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatest of the soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported without the latter.

Fielding, Henry

46.

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

Chapin, Edwin Hubbel

47.

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

48.

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

Peale, Norman Vincent

49.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

50.

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