Motivational Quotes

Adversity

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

- Roethke, Theodore

Best Quotes about Adversity

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Forbes, Malcolm S.

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.

They that sow in tears shall reap joy. [Psalms 126:5]

Bible

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

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

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

Kennedy, Rose F.

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

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

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

10.

No untroubled day has ever dawned for me.

Seneca

11.

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

12.

It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows by like a song. But the man worth while is the one who can smile, when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is troubled, And it always comes with the years. And the smiles that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears.

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler

13.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.

Gibran, Kahlil

14.

Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.

Pliny The Elder

15.

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

16.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

17.

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

Casey, M Kathleen

18.

We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.

Beecher, Henry Ward

19.

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

Jung, Carl

20.

What is to give light must endure the burning.

Frankl, Viktor E.

21.

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

Seneca

22.

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

23.

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

Homer

24.

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

James, William

25.

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

26.

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

Ward, William A.

27.

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

Propertius, Sextus

28.

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

29.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

Schweitzer, Albert

30.

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.

31.

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

Gesser

32.

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

33.

You may live in an imperfect world but the frontiers are not closed and the doors are not all shut.

Maltz, Maxwell

34.

Every burden is a blessing.

Schuller, Robert H.

35.

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

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.

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

38.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

39.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Nietzsche, Friedrich

40.

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

41.

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

42.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore

43.

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

Johnson

44.

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

Devito, Danny

45.

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.

46.

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

Bible

47.

Adversity is the first path to truth.

Byron, Lord

48.

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

Benson, Taylor

49.

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

50.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Nixon, Richard M.