Motivational Quotes

Adversity

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

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

That which causes us trials shall yield us triumph: and that which make our hearts ache shall fill us with gladness. The only true happiness is to learn, to advance, and to improve: which could not happen unless we had commence with error, ignorance, and imperfection. We must pass through the darkness, to reach the light.

Pike, Albert

I bring to my life a certain amount of mess.

Coppola, Francis Ford

Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for it.

Warren, Earl

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

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

Every man has a rainy corner of his life whence comes foul weather which follows him.

Richter, Jean Paul

Stumbling is not falling.

Proverb, Portuguese

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

Shain, Merle

10.

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

Schmidt, Walt

11.

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

12.

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

13.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

Dune, Frank Herbert

14.

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

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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.

18.

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

Bacon, Francis

19.

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

20.

There are three modes of bearing the ills of life, by indifference, by philosophy, and by religion.

Colton, Charles Caleb

21.

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)

22.

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

23.

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

Bible

24.

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

Jung, Carl

25.

Do you think that you shall enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed before you?

Qur'an

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.

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

Johnson, Samuel

28.

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

29.

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

Grant, Hanmer Parsons

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.

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

32.

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

33.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Dickinson, Emily

34.

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

Horace

35.

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

36.

They sicken at the calm that know the storm.

Parker, Dorothy

37.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Schuller, Robert H.

38.

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

39.

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.

40.

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

41.

Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.

Colton, Charles Caleb

42.

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

Peale, Norman Vincent

43.

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

Hazlitt, William

44.

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

Bible

45.

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

46.

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

Wells, H.G.

47.

Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.

Jones, Charles ''Tremendous''

48.

Only entropy comes easy.

Mumford, Lewis

49.

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

50.

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

Sting