quotations about adversity
Prosperity is no just scale, adversity is the only balance to try friends.
PLUTARCH
attributed, A Dictionary of Thoughts
It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end ... because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing ... this shadow. Even darkness must pass.
SAM
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The discipline to keep going in the face of adversity is what separates the exceptional performers from the rest of the pack. When the road gets rocky and takes some unexpected twists and turns, you can sit by the side, make excuses, and watch others go by. Or you can push on despite the terrain.
JOHN GLENNON
"Desire and Drive: Is it enough?", Kamloops This Week, March 3, 2016
Dealing with adversity is like preparing for surgery. By putting our faith in what the doctor has said, we believe we will be better off if we have the surgery. But that does not make it any less painful. By submitting to the hand of a surgeon, we are saying that our ultimate goal is health, even at the cost of pain. Adversity is the same way. It is a means to an end. It is God's tool for the advancement of our spiritual lives.
CHARLES F. STANLEY
How to Handle Adversity
There is an elasticity in the human mind, capable of bearing much, but which will not show itself, until a certain weight of affliction be put upon it; its powers may be compared to those vehicles whose springs are so contrived that they get on smoothly enough when loaded, but jolt confoundedly when they have nothing to bear.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
It is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Adversity is the first path to truth.
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
Adversity is a misperception as all works toward the good.
JULIA CAMERON
Prayers to the Great Creator
Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.
ROBERT LEIGHTON
attributed, A Dictionary of Thoughts
Adversity is like the period of the former and of the latter rain--cold, comfortless, unfriendly to man and to animal; yet from that season have their birth, the flower, and the fruit, the date, the rose, and the pomegranate.
SIR WALTER SCOTT
The Talisman
Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, then, especially, being free from flatterers.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
attributed, A Dictionary of Thoughts
There is no education like adversity.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI
Endymion
The shade of faith and the cloak of true godliness is the best equipage for the storm of adversity.
WILLIAM SCOTT DOWNEY
Proverbs
If we miss the opportunity for growth we waste our adversity and come out on the other side the same.
CLARENCE LEE JR.
"Adversity is Preparation", The Lee Blog
Adversity is a way of life and God is there in that time of need.
DABO SWINNEY
"Clemson's Dabo Swinney shares 'SWAG' story", Times Enterprise, February 25, 2016
Abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our greatest adversity.
DANIEL DEFOE
Robinson Crusoe
The dictionary says that adversity is a condition marked by misfortune, a calamity, or an unfortunate event or circumstance. I say that adversity comes in all shapes and sizes, from life-threatening illnesses, to losing a sale, to failing in business, to rocky relationships. Adversity can be many things according to just when it hits you and under what conditions. Whatever it may be for you, if you have suffered setbacks, hardships, or failures, know that you are not alone. Very few things are true all of the time in all situations, but this is a universal truth: Plans do not become achievements, dreams do not become realities, and ideas do not come to fruition without setbacks, hardships, and failures.
BARRY J. FARBER
Diamond Power
Difficulties strengthen the mind as labor does the body.
SENECA
Seneca's Morals
It's tempting to suppose that adversity is a precursor to strong leadership. But it's not the adversity that foments achievement, it's an individual's response to adversity--their degree of resilience. Resilience, the ability to bounce back after a setback, is an emotional muscle that grows stronger with use. The more frequent and intense the adversity--situations where one is under fire, facing a formidable foe or suffering with hardship--the more one's resilience is tested and fortified. Note the strong relationship between adversity and resilience. Without adversity, our resilience muscles atrophy. If life is too comfortable, we never practice "bouncing back." If we never fail or lose, we miss the confidence-building experience of coming from behind to win.
JOHN ENGELS
"Adversity and resilience can become leadership assets", Rochester Business Journal, January 29, 2016
Harnessing adversity is a discipline tailored to a world of unpredictable outcomes--a world where one can disturb, but not wholly direct, a living system. Because the unexpected--adversity--is guaranteed, this discipline is about routinely making lemons into lemon meringue pie.
RICHARD T. PASCALE
Surfing the Edge of Chaos