Adversity Quotes
Men often bear little grievances with less courage than they do large misfortunes.
Anon.
The best way out of a difficulty is through it.
Bacon, Francis
Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue.
Bacon, Francis
Prosperity is not without many fears and distaste; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.
Beecher, Harriet Ward
Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.
Bible
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day. (Matthew 6:34)
Bion
To be unable to bear an ill is itself a great ill.
Bryant, William Cullen
Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster children into strength and athletic proportion.
Byron, Lord
Adversity is the first path to truth.
Channing, William Ellery
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage.
Chinese Proverb
A diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.
Ching, I
Adversity breaks the inferior man's will but only bends the superior man's spirit. Outward influence is denied the great man, who accordingly uses words sparingly but retains his central position.
Cocteau, Jean
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 bizzare which seems inherent in them.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Strong men greet war, tempest, hard times. They wish, as Pindar said, to tread the floors of hell, with necessities as hard as iron.
Epictetus
Common and vulgar people ascribe all ills that they feel to others; people of little wisdom ascribe to themselves; people of much wisdom, to no one.
Epictetus
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.
Epicurus
The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.
Euripides
Human misery must somewhere have a stop: there is no wind that always blows a storm.
Euripides
Ignorance of one's misfortunes is clear gain.
Euripides
In misfortune, what friend remains a friend?
Ferre, Frederick
A time of disarray is also a moment of opportunity.
Goldsmith, Oliver
Aromatic plants bestow no spicy fragrance while they grow; but crush'd or trodden to the ground, diffuse their balmy sweets around.
Hazlitt, William
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.
Heraclitus
Greater dooms win greater destinies.
Hindu Proverb
When an elephant is in trouble, even a frog will kick him.
Horace
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
Horace
Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.
Horne, Bishop
Adversity borrows its sharpest sting from our impatience.
Hugo, Victor
Adversity makes men,and prosperity makes monsters.
More Quotes Below...
No man is more unhappy than the one who is never in adversity; the greatest affliction of life is never to be afflicted.
La Bruyere, Jean
As riches and favor forsake a man, we discover him to be a fool, but nobody could find it out in his prosperity.
Livius, Titus
In great straits and when hope is small, the boldest counsels are the safest.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
The nearer the dawn the darker the night.
Lowell, James Russell
Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen.
Persian Proverb
The drowning man is not troubled by rain.
Pliny the Elder
With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.
Quran
Do you think that you shall enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed before you?
Rousseau, Jean J.
To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.
Scott, Sir Walter
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.
Seneca
We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.
Seneca
The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.
Seneca
Light troubles speak; the weighty are struck dumb.
Shakespeare, William
Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy.
Shakespeare, William
Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, And good in everything.
Sophocles
It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and no one else has made it.
Sophocles
One's own escape from troubles makes one glad; but bringing friends to trouble is hard grief.
Strife, Eric
Adversity is merely an obstacle, those who are wise simply walk through it.
Syrus, Publilius
Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid.
Truman, Harry
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Unknown
Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.
Wells, H.G.
Humanity either makes, or breeds, or tolerates all its afflictions.