|
| Navigation: Famous Quotes and Authors - Adversity Quotes |
|
|
|
Adversity Quotes and Quotations
 An earthquake achieves what the law promises but does not in practice maintain - the equality of all men.  I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either. I have an inward treasure born within me, which can keep me alive if all the extraneous delights should be withheld; or offered only at a price I cannot afford. Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch. People don't ever seem to realize that doing what's right is no guarantee against misfortune. The struggle to the top is in itself enough to fulfill the human heart. Sisyphus should be regarded as happy. There are three modes of bearing the ills of life: by indifference, by philosophy and by religion. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. - Bible Night brings our troubles to the light rather than banishes them. - Seneca Too much happens ... Man performs, engenders so much more than he can or should have to bear. That's how he finds that he can bear anything. A great man does not lose his self-possession when he is afflicted; the ocean is not made muddy by the falling in of its banks. I've had an unhappy life, thank God. Do not show your wounded finger, for everything will knock up against it. They sicken of the calm that know the storm. Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes. The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows what we have become. What does not destroy me, makes me strong. I long ago came to the conclusion that all life is six to five against. (Adversity is) the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free from admirers then. Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist - it reduces him to his fighting weight. From a fallen tree, all make kindling. The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude, which in morals is the heroical virtue. The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities. No untroubled day has ever dawned for me. - Seneca You can't have more bugs than a blanketful. Even in the deepest sinking there is the hidden purpose of an ultimate rising. Thus it is for all men, from none is the source of light withheld unless he himself withdraws from it. Therefore the most important thing is not to despair. Trouble will rain on those who are already wet. They say a reasonable amount o' fleas is good for a dog - it keeps him from broodin' over bein' a dog mebbe. There is nothing the body suffers which the soul may not profit by. The burden is equal to the horse's strength. Nothing befalls a man except what is in his nature to endure. I am escaped by the skin of my teeth. - Bible Prosperity tries the fortunate; adversity the great. Be willing to have it so; acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune. If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most people would be content to take their own and depart. - Solon I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian. When the world has once begun to use us ill, it afterwards continues the same treatment with less scruple or ceremony, as men do to a whore. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? - Bible Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on. Fire tries gold, misfortune men. The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honour or dishonour to the latest generation. Thou hast shown thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. - Bible A wounded deer leaps the highest. The difficulties which I meet with in order to realize my existence are precisely what awaken and mobilize my activities, my capacities. Whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift. I have always been pushed by the negative.... The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success. What we want is never simple. For me life is a challenge. And it will be a challenge if I live to be a hundred or if I get to be a trillionaire. To be thrown upon one's own resources is to be cast into the very lap of fortune, for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible. Every failure made me more confident. Because I wanted even more to achieve things, as revenge. To show that I could. Adversity is, to me at least, a tonic and a bracer. Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion. There are times in everyone's life when something constructive is born out of adversity ... when things seem so bad that you've got to grab your fate by the shoulders and shake it. Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war. Some minds seem almost to create themselves, springing up under every disadvantage and working their solitary but irresistible way through a thousand obstacles. Every calamity is a spur and valuable hint. Treasure the memories of past misfortunes; they constitute our bank of fortitude. If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be. Necessity is often the spur to genius. Necessity is the mother of "taking chances." Necessity makes even the timid brave. - Sallust People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them. Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict. Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records. I think there is this about the great troubles - they teach us the art of cheerfulness; whereas the small ones cultivate the industry of discontent. Opposition inflames the enthusiast, never converts him. The thought that we are enduring the unendurable is one of the things that keeps us going. If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just. A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man; it is what he wants and must have to be good for anything. Hardship and opposition are the native soil of manhood and self-reliance. Difficulties, opposition, criticism - these things are meant to be overcome, and there is a special joy in facing them and in coming out on top. It is only when there is nothing but praise that life loses its charm and I begin to wonder what I should do about it. They sicken of calm, who know the storm. Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggles increase. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. The effects of opposition are wonderful. There are men who rise refreshed on hearing of a threat, men to whom a crises, which intimidates and paralyzes the majority, comes as graceful and beloved as a bride! Remember that the Devil doesn't sleep, but seeks our ruin in a thousand different ways Down you mongrel, Death! Back into your kennel! He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skills. Our antagonist is our helper. The block of granite which was an obstacle in the path of the weak becomes a steppingstone in the path of the strong. Strong people are made by opposition, like kites that go up against the wind. Men strive for peace, but it is their enemies that give them strength, and I think if man no longer had enemies, he would have to invent them, for his strength only grows from struggle. You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity. The English nation is never so great as in adversity. Enemies can be an incentive to survive and become someone in spite of them. Enemies can keep you alert and aware. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems ... create our courage and wisdom. It is often better to have a great deal of harm happen to one than a little; a great deal may rouse you to remove what a little will only accustom you to endure. When things come to the worse, they generally mend. Things have got to be wrong in order that they may be deplored. Remorse begets reform. "The world is a wheel always turning," philosophized Mrs. Pelz. "Those who were high go down low, and those who've been low go up higher." Life begins on the other side of despair. It constantly happens that the Lord permits a soul to fall so that it may grow humbler. In order to change, we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired. I have been in sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands. There is often in people to whom "the worst" has happened an almost transcendent freedom, for they have faced "the worst" and survived it. I didn't know I'd have to be torn down before I could be built up. 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. It is only the women whose eyes have been washed clear with tears who get the broad vision that makes them little sisters to all the world. Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self. Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor. Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. The pain of love is the pain of being alive. It is a perpetual wound. There is no coming to consciousness without pain. Everybody's heart is open, you know, when they have recently escaped from severe pain, or are recovering the blessing of health. Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness. Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable. Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed. Suffering raises up those souls that are truly great; it is only small souls that are made mean-spirited by it. To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering. If you suffer, thank God! It is a sure sign that you are alive. Suffering is also one of the ways of knowing you're alive. Don't look forward to the day when you stop suffering. Because when it comes, you'll know you're dead. How sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong. He disposes Doom who hath suffered him. They merit more praise who know how to suffer misery than those who temper themselves in contentment. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved. Never to suffer would have been never to have been blessed. It is somehow reassuring to discover that the word "travel" is derived from "travail," denoting the pains of childbirth. True knowledge comes only through suffering. Suffering raises up those souls that are truly great; it is only small souls that are made mean-spirited by it. He disposes Doom who hath suffered him. Suffering has always been with us, does it really matter in what form it comes? All that matters is how we bear it and how we fit it into our lives. We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full. Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand. The saints rejoiced at injuries and persecutions, because in forgiving them they had something to present to God when they prayed to Him. The difficulties and struggles of today are but the price we must pay for the accomplishments and victories of tomorrow. Experience may be hard but we claim its gifts because they are real, even though our feet bleed on its stones. And I think that's important, to know how the water's gone over the dam before you start to describe it. It helps to have been over the dam yourself. I think these difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way that so many things that one goes around worrying about are of no importance whatsoever. Problems are the price of progress. Don't bring me anything but trouble. Trouble is the thing that strong men grow by. Met in the right way, it is a sure-fire means of putting iron into the victim's will and making him a tougher man to down forever after. Every time you meet a situation, though you think at the time it is an impossibility and you go through the torture of the damned, once you have met it and lived through it, you find that forever after you are freer than you were before. I have always fought for ideas - until I learned that it isn't ideas but grief, struggle, and flashes of vision which enlighten. I have learned in the great University of Hard Knocks a philosophy that no woman who has had an easy life ever acquires. I have learned to live each day as it comes, and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. It is the dark menace of the future that makes cowards of us. Discontent and disorder were signs of energy and hope, not of despair. We say: mad with joy. We should say: wise with grief. There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm. Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation. Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better. Woman's discontent increases in exact proportion to her development. Restlessness is discontent, and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Noble discontent is the path to heaven. No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown. Times of stress and difficulty are seasons of opportunity when the seeds of progress are sown. The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials. As there is no worldly gain without some loss, so there is no worldly loss without some gain.... Set the allowance against the loss, and thou shalt find no loss great. Never complain about your troubles; they are responsible for more than half of your income. A problem is a chance for you to do your best. Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of a job. Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties. It is often hard to distinguish between the hard knocks in life and those of opportunity. Fire is the test of gold, adversity of strong men. I think my biggest achievement is that after going through a rather difficult time, I consider myself comparatively sane. I'm proud of that. To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist. I think hearts are very much like glasses - if they do not break with the first ring, they usually last a considerable time. Your first big trouble can be a bonanza if you live through it. Get through the first trouble, and you'll probably make it through the next one. Calamity is the test of integrity. The secret of a leader lies in the tests he has faced over the whole course of his life and the habit of action he develops in meeting those tests. The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the last generation. Our trials are tests; our sorrows pave the way for a fuller life when we have earned it. Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purist ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storms. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. A diamond is a chunk of coal that made good under pressure. A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain. It is the surmounting of difficulties that makes heroes. - Kossuth Men habitually use only a small part of the powers which they possess and which they might use under appropriate circumstances. It is the north wind that lashes men into Vikings; it is the soft, luscious south wind which lulls them to lotus dreams. - Ouida It is grief that develops the powers of the mind. Unless a man has been kicked around a little, you can't really depend upon him to amount to anything. Troubles cured you salty as a country ham, smoky to the taste, thick-skinned and tender inside. If you have to be careful because of oppression and censorship, this pressure produces diamonds. Adversity is another way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crisis that didn't make me stronger. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. ... Great necessities call out great virtues. Of all the advantages which come to any young man ... poverty is the greatest. My luck was my father not striking oil... we'd have been rich. I'd never have set out for Hollywood with my camera, and I'd have had a lot less interesting life. [A difficult childhood gave me] a kind of cocky confidence. ... I could never have so little that I hadn't had less. It took away my fear. If you have been sunned through and through like an apricot on a wall from your earliest days, you are oversensitive to any withdrawal of heat. I was lucky I wasn't a better boxer, or that's what I'd be now - a punchy ex-pug. - Bob Hope At every step the child should be allowed to meet the real experience of life; the thorns should never be plucked from his roses. Hot water is my native element. I was in it as a baby, and I have never seemed to get out of it ever since. When I was very young, I tried selling used cars. It didn't last long. I guess that was my good luck too, that I didn't show more promise at it, or I might have been an automobile dealer. Supporting myself at an early age was the best training for life I could have possibly received. In my youth, poverty enriched me, but now I can afford wealth. I'm very grateful that I was too poor to get to art school until I was 21. ... I was old enough when I got there to know how to get something out of it. The most valuable gift I ever received was ... the gift of insecurity ... my father left us. My mother's love might not have prepared me for life the way my father's departure did. He forced us out on the road, where we had to earn our bread. Americans are like a rich father who wishes he knew how to give his sons the hardships that made him rich. I would never have amounted to anything were it not for adversity. I was forced to come up the hard way. Adversity introduces a man to himself. I thank God for my handicaps for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God. When one's own problems are unsolvable and all best efforts are frustrated, it is lifesaving to listen to other people's problems. This struggle of people against their conditions, this is where you find the meaning in life. Adversity has ever been considered as the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being free from flatterers. In all things preserve integrity; and the consciousness of thine own uprightness will alleviate the toil of business, soften the hardness of ill-success and disappointments, and give thee an humble confidence before God, when the ingratitude of man, or the iniquity of the times may rob thee of other rewards. He knows not his own strength who hath not met adversity. Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. Who hath not known ill fortune, never knew himself, or his own virtue. Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not. I think the years I have spent in prison have been the most formative and important in my life because of the discipline, the sensations, but chiefly the opportunity to think clearly, to try to understand things. We only really face up to ourselves when we are afraid. Difficulties are things that show what men are. Even if misfortune is only good for bringing a fool to his senses, it would still be just to deem it good for something. Never does a man know the force that is in him till some mighty affection or grief has humanized the soul. Disappointment is the nurse of wisdom. Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They're what make the instrument stretch, what make you go beyond the norm. A woman is like a tea bag: you never know her strength until you drop her in hot water. Trouble brings experience, and experience brings wisdom. A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life to be thankful for a good one. Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant. - Horace Adversity is a severe instructor. ... He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills. Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you. You can learn little from victory. You can learn everything from defeat. A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner. When a man is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he has been put on his wits ... he has gained facts, learned his ignorance, is cured of the insanity of conceit, has got moderation and real skill. From their errors and mistakes, the wise and good learn wisdom for the future. - Plutarch By becoming more unhappy, we sometimes learn how to be less so. Every experience, however bitter, has its lesson, and to focus one's attention on the lesson helps one overcome the bitterness. A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice. It is from the level of calamities ... that we learn impressive and useful lessons. When I have listened to my mistakes, I have grown. We only think when we are confronted with a problem. Adversity comes with instruction in its hand. Mistakes are often the best teachers. Pain, indolence, sterility, endless ennui have also their lesson for you. Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it. Wisdom comes by disillusionment. You have learned something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something. I have always grown from my problems and challenges, from the things that don't work out. That's when I've really learned. Those things that hurt, instruct. Pain is the root of knowledge. Life can be real tough ... you can either learn from your problems, or keep repeating them over and over. Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes, and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. The good things that belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired. One who was adored by all in prosperity is abhorred by all in adversity. Prosperity provideth, but adversity proveth friends. The human race has had long experience and a fine tradition in surviving adversity. But we now face a task for which we have little experience, the task of surviving prosperity. Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it. - Horace The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude. In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider. - Bible In victory even the cowardly like to boast, while in adverse times even the brave are discredited. - Sallust Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity. Some knowledge and some song and some beauty must be kept for those days before the world again plunges into darkness. There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle. Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up. Truth, like the burgeoning of a bulb under the soil, however deeply sown, will make its way to the light. Flowers grow out of dark moments. I have brightness in my soul, which strains toward Heaven. I am like a bird! When it is dark enough, you can see the stars. All sorts of spiritual gifts come through privations, if they are accepted. There is nothing the body suffers which the soul may not profit by. Often God has to shut a door in our face, so that He can subsequently open the door through which He wants us to go. God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars. He who serves God with what costs him nothing, will do very little service, you may depend on it. There are three modes of bearing the ills of life: by indifference, by philosophy, and by religion. Sorrow has its reward. It never leaves us where it found us. The same reason makes a man a religious enthusiast that makes a man an enthusiast in any other way: an uncomfortable mind in an uncomfortable body. Adversity introduces a man to himself. Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture. Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it. Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. There is no education like adversity. 
|
|
| The Quotes on this website are the property of their respective authors. All information has been reproduced on this website for informational and educational purposes only. Copyright © 2011 Famous Quotes and Authors.com. All Rights Reserved. |
