Motivational Quotes

Adversity

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door -- or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.

- Tagore, Rabindranath

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Peale, Norman Vincent

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

The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up.

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

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

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

When walking through the valley of shadows, remember, a shadow is cast by a Light.

Barclay, H.K.

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

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

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

Zwanzig, Carl

13.

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

14.

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

15.

Out of love and hatred, out of earnings and borrowings and leadings and losses; out of sickness and pain; out of wooing and worshipping; out of traveling and voting and watching and caring; out of disgrace and contempt, comes our tuition in the serene and beautiful laws.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

16.

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

Kennedy, Rose F.

17.

I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.

Walton, Sam

18.

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

19.

People are like stained -- glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within

Ross, Elizabeth Kubler

20.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

21.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

Seneca

22.

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

Jung, Carl

23.

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

24.

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

Wells, H.G.

25.

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

Schwab, Charles M.

26.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

27.

Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, Shake well before using. That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable.

Havner, Vance

28.

Only entropy comes easy.

Mumford, Lewis

29.

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

Gibran, Kahlil

30.

Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer.

Landers, Ann

31.

Breakdowns can create breakthroughs. Things fall apart so things can fall together.

32.

If the career you have chosen has some unexpected inconvenience, console yourself by reflecting that no career is without them.

Johnson

33.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

34.

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

35.

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

Shain, Merle

36.

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

Saadi

37.

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

Rogers, James

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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.

41.

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

Scott, Sir Walter

42.

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

Hemingway, Ernest

43.

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

44.

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

Augustine, St.

45.

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

Seneca

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

Sheehan, George

49.

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)

50.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace