Adversity Quotes

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.  ~ Abraham Lincoln


By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean.  ~ Mark Twain


In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.  ~ Francis Bacon


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


Into each life some rain must fall, some days must be dark and dreary.  ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.  ~ Maya Angelou


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


There are moments when everything goes well; don't be frightened, it won't last.  ~ Jules Renard


Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.  ~ Aristotle


What does not destroy, me makes me stronger.  ~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche


When you go in search for honey you must expect to be stung by bees.  ~ President Kaunda of Zambia


I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.  ~ Maya Angelou


A certain amount of opposition is a great help to man. Kites rise against, not with the wind.  ~ Lewis Mumford


Every path hath a puddle.  ~ George Herbert


You may not know it, but at the far end of despair, there is a white clearing where one is almost happy.  ~ Joan Baez


If the sky falls, hold up your hands.  ~ Spanish proverb


Swarms make the oak take deeper root.  ~ George Herbert


The apprenticeship of difficulty is one which the greatest of men have had to serve.  ~ Samuel Smiles


The best way out is always through.  ~ Robert Frost


We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.  ~ Alexander Hamilton


Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles.  ~ Charlie Chaplin


God brings men into deep waters, not to drown them, but to cleanse them.  ~ John Aughey

This struggle of people against their conditions, this is where you find the meaning in life.  ~ Rose Chernin


Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.  ~ Seneca


Sorrow is a fruit. God does not allow it to grow on a branch that is too weak to bear it.  ~ Victor Hugo


Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.  ~ Publilius Syrus


Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion.  ~ B.C. Forbes


Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a new way to stand.  ~ Oprah Winfrey


It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity. ~ Horace


I've had an unhappy life, thank God.  ~ Russell Baker


What we want is never simple.  ~ Linda Pastan


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.  ~ Helen Keller


Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes.  ~ Henry J. Kaiser


Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.  ~ Winston Churchill


From a falling tree, all make kindling.  ~ Spanish proverb


I would never have amounted to anything were it not for adversity. I was forced to come up the hard way.  ~ J.C. Penny


There is nothing the body suffers which the soul may not profit by.  ~ George Meredith


Nothing befalls a man except what is in his nature to endure.  ~ Marcus Aurelius


It is grief that develops the powers of the mind.  ~ Marcel Proust


We are always on the anvil; by trials God is shaping us for higher things.  ~ Henry Ward Beecher


The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.  ~ Woodrow Wilson


Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger.  ~ Friedrich Nietzsche


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


Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war. ~ Marcus Annaeus Seneca


Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.  ~ Samuel Johnson


There is no education like adversity.  ~ Benjamin Disraeli


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.  ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.


What does not destroy me, makes me strong.  ~ Friedrich Nietzsche


You have to accept whatever comes, and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.  ~ Eleanor Roosevelt


Those things that hurt, instruct.  ~ Benjamin Franklin


The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.  ~ Sophocles


I thank God for my handicaps for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God.  ~ Helen Keller


In adversity, remember to keep an open mind.  ~ Horace


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


Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.  ~ Thomas Carlyle


Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.  ~ Horace


Fire is the test of gold, adversity of strong men.  ~ Marcus Annaeus Seneca


He knows not his own strength who hath not met adversity.  ~ Samuel Johnson


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


In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time.  ~ Robert Collier


Adversity is the first path to truth.  ~ Lord Byron


God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.  ~ C. S. Lewis


You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.  ~ Barbara De Angelis


Adversity is, to me at least, a tonic and a bracer.  ~ Sir Walter Scott


Prosperity provideth, but adversity proveth friends.  ~ Queen Elizabeth I


Everything happens for a reason, even when we are not wise enough to see it. When there is no struggle, there is no strength.   ~ Oprah Winfrey


Only in the darkness can you see the stars.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.


Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not.  ~ Henry Fielding


The difficulties which I meet with in order to realize my existence are precisely what awaken and mobilize my activities, my capacities.  ~ José Ortega y Gasset


A wounded deer leaps the highest.  ~ Emily Dickinson


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.  ~ Anne Bradstreet


Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.  ~ William A. Ward


Be willing to access joy in the face of adversity.  ~ C. W. Metcalf


Every path hath a puddle.  ~ George Herbert


Hope and patience are two sovereign remedies for all, the surest reposals, the softest cushions to lean on in adversity.  ~ Robert Burton


Let us be brave in the face of adversity. ~ Marcus Annaeus Seneca


One who was adored by all in prosperity is abhorred by all in adversity.  ~ Baltasar Gracian


Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.  ~ Horace


Adversity is another way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crisis that didn't make me stronger.  ~ Lou Holtz


Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.  ~ William Shakespeare