Motivational Quotes

Adversity

Adversity is a great teacher, but this teacher makes us pay dearly for its instruction; and often the profit we derive, is not worth the price we paid.

- Rousseau, Jean Jacques

Best Quotes about Adversity

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

Shain, Merle

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

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

The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.

Smiles, Samuel

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

Collins, Kitty O'neill

Men often bear little grievances with less courage than they do large misfortunes.

Aesop

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Plutarch

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

Schweitzer, Albert

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

10.

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

Billings, Josh

11.

It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.

Bennet, Arnold

12.

We need tough days to drive us to our knees.

13.

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

Gesser

14.

The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don't let it get the best of you.

Rogers, Will

15.

Only entropy comes easy.

Mumford, Lewis

16.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

Tagore, Rabindranath

17.

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

Chesterton, Gilbert K.

18.

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

Barclay, H.K.

19.

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

20.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Horace

21.

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

22.

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.

23.

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

24.

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

Hemingway, Ernest

25.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.

Paige, Leroy ''Satchel''

26.

There could be no honor in a sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat.

Lawrence, Thomas E.

27.

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

28.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

Dune, Frank Herbert

29.

Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them

30.

Things were bad but now they are OK.

Seymour, Harold J.

31.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

32.

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

33.

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

34.

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

35.

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

36.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

37.

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

38.

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

Kennedy, Rose F.

39.

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

Schwab, Charles M.

40.

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.

41.

Adversity is a fact of life. It can't be controlled. What we can control is how we react to it.

42.

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

Homer

43.

Tribulation will not hurt you, unless as it too often does; it hardens you and makes you sour, narrow and skeptical.

Chapin, Edwin Hubbel

44.

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

45.

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains

Cady, Emilie

46.

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

Kempis, Thomas

47.

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

48.

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

49.

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

50.

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

Roethke, Theodore