Adversity Quotes

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

If you're going through hell, keep going. —Winston Churchill

We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, Why did this happen to me? unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way. —Author Unknown

A bend in the road is not the end of the road... unless you fail to make the turn. —Author Unknown

The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief. —William Shakespeare, Othello

It is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so. —William Shakespeare

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much. —Mother Teresa

We acquire the strength we have overcome. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

You can't run away from trouble. There ain't no place that far. —Uncle Remus

If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it. —Oliver Wendell Holmes

Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known. —Garrison Keillor

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies. —Erich Fromm

I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders. —Jewish Proverb

Turn your wounds into wisdom. —Oprah Winfrey

Sometimes the littlest things in life are the hardest to take. You can sit on a mountain more comfortably than on a tack. —Author Unknown

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

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. —Henry Ford

Adversity introduces us to ourselves. —Author Unknown

Mistakes are the portals of discovery. —James Joyce

Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do something you don’t necessarily want to do, to get a result you would really like to have. —Andy Andrews

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. —F. Scott Fitzgerald

Suffering is very kind to you. If you don't have suffering, you will not turn from attraction to cyclic existence, which means you will never be free. It's as simple as that. —Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche

Adversity gives birth to greatness. The greater the challenges and difficulties we face, the greater the opportunity we have to grow and develop as people. A life without adversity, a life of ease and comfort, produces nothing and leaves us with nothing. This is one of the indisputable facts of life. —Daisaku Ikeda

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it. —Lou Holtz

Life is like photography, you use the negative to develop. —Author Unknown

Lots of times, our main problem isn’t our problem. Our biggest problem is our perspective on our problem. —Steven Furtick

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere. —Frank A. Clark

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. —Kenji Miyazawa

Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are. —Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something's suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful. —Barbara Bloom

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. —Mary Engelbreit

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem. —Theodore Rubin

A bad grade is only one letter in the Essay of life. —Lee Drake

Sometimes in tragedy we find our life's purpose —the eye sheds a tear to find its focus. —Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. —African Proverb

There is no education like adversity. —Disraeli

We find comfort among those who agree with us —growth among those who don't. —Frank A. Clark

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. —Michel de Montaigne

Adversity introduces a man to himself. —Author Unknown

It's not easy taking my problems one at a time when they refuse to get in line. —Ashleigh Brilliant

The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears. —John Vance Cheney

Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out. —Edwin Markham

Life didn't promise to be wonderful. —Teddy Pendergrass

Adversity is the first path to truth. —Lord Byron

Diseases can be our spiritual flat tires —disruptions in our lives that seem to be disasters at the time but end by redirecting our lives in a meaningful way. —Bernie S. Siegel

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant. —Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Satires

To have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered. —Oscar Wilde

The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them. —Bernard M. Baruch

The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt. —Max Lerner, The Unfinished Country, 1950

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. —Edmund Burke, The Revolution in France, 1790

The course of true anything never does run smooth. —Samuel Butler

At times, challenges hit with the force of a roaring, rushing waterfall. The true test, however, is whether you can put your arms up and enjoy the feel of the water. —Aviva Kaufman

When life takes the wind out of your sails, it is to test you at the oars. —Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose. —Billie Holiday

The darkest hour has only sixty minutes. —Morris Mandel

The gem cannot be polished without friction nor man without trials. —Confucius

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival. —Winston Churchill

Happy is the man who can endure the highest and lowest fortune. He who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity has deprived misfortune of its power. —Seneca

My strength is made perfect in weakness. —II Corinthians

Problems are the price you pay for progress. —Branch Rickey

When you're feeling your worst, that's when you get to know yourself the best. —Leslie Grossman

Happiness is beneficial for the body but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind. —Marcel Proust, The Past Recaptured, Remembrance of Things Past

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. —Bill Gates, Business @ the Speed of Thought

The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them. —Bernard M. Baruch

Like a plant that starts up in showers and sunshine and does not know which has best helped it to grow, it is difficult to say whether the hard things or the pleasant things did me the most good. —Lucy Larcom

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart. —Socrates

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. —Truman Capote

I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn't of much value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them. —Boris Pasternak

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. —Bertrand Russell

Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle. —James Russell Lowell, Cambridge Thirty Years Ago, Literary Essays

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. —Winston Churchill

Rock bottom is good solid ground, and a dead end street is just a place to turn around. —Buddy Buie and J.R. Cobb, Rock Bottom (song)

The rays of happiness, like those of light, are colorless when unbroken. —Henry W. Longfellow

Success in the affairs of life often serves to hide one's abilities, whereas adversity frequently gives one an opportunity to discover them. —Horace

Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again. Wisely improve the present, it is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart. —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

There is no education like adversity. —Benjamin Disraeli

In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends. —John Churton Collins

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. —Dolly Parton

Everyone who got to where they are had to begin where they were. —Richard Paul Evans

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. —John Wooden

There's only one way to succeed in anything and that is to give everything. —Vince Lombardi

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe. —Anatole France

Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed. —Abraham Lincoln

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination. —Tommy Lasorda

Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential. —John Maxwell

It's never too late to become the person you might have been. —George Elliot

Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person we become. —Jim Rohn

And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. —Abraham Lincoln

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. —Elbert Hubbard

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation. —Arthur Ashe

Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you. —Arnold Palmer

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. —Winston Churchill

What lies behind us, and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Success isn't how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started. —Proverb

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. —Michael Jordan

To guarantee success, act as if it were impossible to fail. —Dorothea Brande

Yesterday's failures are today's seeds that must be diligently planted to be able to abundantly harvest tomorrow's successes. —Author Unknown

What you get by reaching your destination is not nearly as important as what you will become by reaching your destination. —Zig Ziglar