Motivational Quotes

Adversity

One likes people much better when they're battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.

- Woolf, Virginia

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

The seaman tells stories of winds, the ploughman of bulls; the soldier details his wounds, the shepherd his sheep.

Propertius, Sextus

Enter through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it. [Mathew 7:13-14]

Bible

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

Tacitus, Publius Cornelius

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

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

I have often been downcast, but never in despair; I regard our hiding as a dangerous adventure, romantic and interesting at the same time. In my diary I treat all the privations as amusing. I have made up my mind now to lead a different life from other girls and, later on, different from ordinary housewives. My start has been so very full of interest, and that is the sole reason why I have to laugh at the humorous side of the most dangerous moments.

Frank, Anne

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

Homer

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

Wells, H.G.

10.

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

11.

The proof of gold is fire...

Franklin, Benjamin

12.

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

Hoffman, Dustin

13.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

14.

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

Brown, Les

15.

Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them

16.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

17.

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

Kennedy, Rose F.

18.

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

19.

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

20.

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

Seneca

21.

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

Ziglar, Zig

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

Billings, Josh

25.

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

Proverb, Chinese

26.

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

27.

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

Hazlitt, William

28.

Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.

Kierkegaard, S°ren

29.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.

Hill, Napoleon

30.

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.

31.

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

Seneca

32.

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

33.

What I am looking for is a blessing not in disguise.

Collins, Kitty O'neill

34.

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. [Isaiah 48:10]

Bible

35.

You never know what events are going to transpire to get you home.

Movie, Apollo 13

36.

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

Schmidt, Walt

37.

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

Shain, Merle

38.

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

39.

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

Jung, Carl

40.

I didn't know I'd have to be torn down before I could be built up.

41.

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

42.

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

Sting

43.

Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, grow, grow.

Talmud, The

44.

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

Neal, John

45.

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