Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

Best Quotes about Adversity

Adversities do not make a man frail. They show what sort of man he is.

Kempis, Thomas

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

Gallagher, Robert C.

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

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

Wells, H.G.

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

Grant, Hanmer Parsons

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

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

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.

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.

When a man gets to despair he knows that all his thinking will never get him out. He will only get out by the sheer creative effort of God. Consequently he is in the right attitude to receive from God that which he cannot gain for himself.

Chambers, Oswald

11.

Things were bad but now they are OK.

Seymour, Harold J.

12.

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

13.

Only entropy comes easy.

Mumford, Lewis

14.

In my room as a kid... I'd play a fighter and get knocked to the floor and come back to win.

Hoffman, Dustin

15.

Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this.

Homer

16.

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

17.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

18.

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

Seneca

19.

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

20.

Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them

21.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

22.

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

23.

It is in the gift for employing all the vicissitudes of life to one's own advantage and to that of one's craft that a large part of genius consists.

Lichtenberg, Georg C.

24.

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

25.

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.

26.

He who knows the darkness shall learn to live in the light.

27.

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.

28.

Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you.

Gesser

29.

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

Scott, Sir Walter

30.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

31.

Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture.

Burata, Mario

32.

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

33.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

34.

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

35.

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

Sting

36.

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

37.

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.

38.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Aeschylus

39.

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

40.

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

Gibran, Kahlil

41.

A reasonable amount o fleas is good for a dog -- keeps him from brooding over being a dog, maybe.

Westcott, Edward Noyes

42.

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

43.

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

44.

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

45.

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

46.

There will be no crown bearers in heaven who are not cross bearers on earth.

47.

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

Benson, Taylor

48.

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

49.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore