Inspire-U-2-Overcome-Adversity

Get Inspired for Success Strategy 5: Gain Heightened Self Awareness

The reward of suffering is experience.  

- Aeschylus  

Men often bear little grievances with less courage than they do large misfortunes.  

- Aesop  

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship.  

- Louisa May Alcott  

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us--and those around us, more effectively. Look for the learning.  

- Eric Allenbaugh  

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  

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.  

- St Augustine  

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.  

- Francis Bacon  

When walking through the ''valley of shadows,'' remember, a shadow is cast by a Light.  

- H K Barclay  

Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.  

- Henry Ward Beecher  

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

- Henry Ward Beecher  

It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.  

- Arnold Bennet  

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.  

- Taylor Benson  

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.  

- Isaiah 48:10, Bible  

Enter through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it.  

- Mathew 7:13-14, 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.  

- Bible  

They that sow in tears shall reap joy.  

- Psalms 126:5, Bible  

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  

Just because Fate doesn’t deal you the right cards, it doesn’t mean you should give up. It just means you have to play the cards you get to their maximum potential.  

- Les Brown  

Anytime you suffer a setback or disappointment, put your head down and plow ahead.  

- Les Brown  

Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness --a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster-children into strength and athletic proportion.  

- William C Bryant  

Trials, temptations, disappointments, all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of character but strengthen it. Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.  

- James Buckham  

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains  

- Emilie Cady  

No pressure, no diamonds.  

- Mary Case  

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.  

- M Kathleen Casey  

When a man gets to despair he knows that all his thinking will never get him out. He will only get out by the sheer creative effort of God. Consequently he is in the right attitude to receive from God that which he cannot gain for himself.  

- Oswald Chambers  

Tribulation will not hurt you, unless as it too often does; it hardens you and makes you sour, narrow and skeptical.  

- Edwin Hubbel Chapin  

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.  

- Gilbert K Chesterton  

Do not free the camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.  

- Gilbert K Chesterton  

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.  

- Jerry Chin  

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  

Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.  

- Charles Caleb Colton  

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

- Danny Devito  

A wounded deer leaps the highest.  

- Emily Dickinson  

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.  

- Frank Herbert, Dune  

Gray skies are just clouds passing over.  

- Duke Ellington  

Out of love and hatred, out of earnings and borrowings and leadings and losses; out of sickness and pain; out of wooing and worshipping; out of traveling and voting and watching and caring; out of disgrace and contempt, comes our tuition in the serene and beautiful laws.  

- Ralph Waldo Emerson  

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.  

- Epictetus  

When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always get worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.  

- Malcolm S Forbes  

Failure is success if we learn from it.  

- Malcolm S Forbes  

Every hardship; every joy; every temptation is a challenge of the spirit; that the human soul may prove itself. The great chain of necessity wherewith we are bound has divine significance; and nothing happens which has not some service in working out the sublime destiny of the human soul.  

- Elias A Ford  

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.  

- Henry Ford  

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.  

- Anatole France  

What is to give light must endure the burning.  

- Viktor E Frankl  

The proof of gold is fire...  

- Benjamin Franklin  

Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward.  

- Robert C Gallagher  

Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you.  

- Gesser  

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.  

- Kahlil Gibran  

Nothing splendid was ever created in cold blood. Heat is required to forge anything. Every great accomplishment is the story of a flaming heart.  

- Arnold H Glasgow  

We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.  

- Hanmer Parsons Grant  

Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds; all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.  

- Edward Everett Hale  

Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, ''Shake well before using.'' That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable.  

- Vance Havner  

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are stronger at the broken places.  

- Ernest Hemingway  

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

- Napoleon Hill  

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity.  

- Lou Holtz  

Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this.  

- Homer  

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.  

- Horace  

As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it.  

- Horace  

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

- Horace  

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.  

- Doug Horton  

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them.  

- Washington Irving  

I used to hurt so badly that I'd ask God why, what have I done to deserve any of this? I feel now He was preparing me for this, for the future. That's the way I see it.  

- Janet Jackson  

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.  

- William James  

Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.  

- Charles Tremendous Jones  

He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity  

- Ben Jonson  

Had there been no difficulties and no thorns in the way, then man would have been in his primitive state and no progress made in civilization and mental culture.  

- Anandabai Joshee  

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.  

- Carl Jung  

Adversities do not make a man frail. They show what sort of man he is.  

- Thomas A Kempis  

As iron put into the fire loseth its rust and becometh clearly red-hot, so he that wholly turneth himself unto God puts off all slothfulness, and is transformed into a new man.  

- Thomas A Kempis  

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?  

- Rose F Kennedy  

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.  

Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.  

- Henry Kissinger  

Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.  

- Robert Leighton  

Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle.  

- James Russell Lowell  

You may live in an imperfect world but the frontiers are not closed and the doors are not all shut.  

- Maxwell Maltz  

Always seek out the seed of triumph in every adversity.  

- Og Mandino  

Search for the seed of good in every adversity. Master that principle and you will own a precious shield that will guard you well through all the darkest valleys you must traverse. Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the mountaintop. So will you learn things in adversity that you would never have discovered without trouble. There is always a seed of good. Find it and prosper.  

- Og Mandino  

There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.  

- Og Mandino  

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

- John Neal  

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.  

- Friedrich Nietzsche  

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.  

- Richard M Nixon  

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.  

- Leroy Satchel Paige  

Cushion the painful effects of hard blows by keeping the enthusiasm going strong, even if doing so requires struggle.  

- Norman Vincent Peale  

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

- James Cash Penney  

The racism, the sexism, I never let it be my problem, it's their problem. If I see a door comin' my way, I'm knockin' it down. And if I can't knock down the door, I'm sliding through the window. I'll never let it stop me from what I wanna do.  

- Rosie Perez  

That which causes us trials shall yield us triumph: and that which make our hearts ache shall fill us with gladness. The only true happiness is to learn, to advance, and to improve: which could not happen unless we had commence with error, ignorance, and imperfection. We must pass through the darkness, to reach the light.  

- Albert Pike  

The depth of darkness to which you can descend and still live is an exact measure of the height to which you can aspire to reach.  

- Laurens Van du Post  

The seaman tells stories of winds, the ploughman of bulls; the soldier details his wounds, the shepherd his sheep.  

- Sextus Propertius  

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.  

- Chinese Proverb  

A stumble may prevent a fall.  

- English Proverb  

A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner.  

- English Proverb  

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.  

- Maori Proverb  

Stumbling is not falling.  

- Portuguese Proverb  

All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.  

- Ralph Ransom  

Am I willing to give up what I have in order to be what I am not yet? Am I able to follow the spirit of love into the desert? It is a frightening and sacred moment. There is no return. One's life is charged forever. It is the fire that gives us our shape.  

- Mary Caroline Richards  

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door -- or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present.  

- Joan Rivers  

If we study the lives of great men and women carefully and unemotionally we find that, invariably, greatness was developed, tested and revealed through the darker periods of their lives. One of the largest tributaries of the RIVER OF GREATNESS is always the STREAM OF ADVERSITY.  

- Cavett Robert  

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.  

- Theodore Roethke  

Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.  

- James Rogers  

The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don't let it get the best of you.  

- Will Rogers  

People are like stained -- glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within  

- Elizabeth Kubler Ross  

When it gets dark enough you can see the stars.  

- Lee Salk  

Trouble shared is trouble halved.  

- Dorothy L Sayers  

It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest.  

- Greek Saying  

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

- Walt Schmidt  

Every burden is a blessing.  

- Robert H Schuller  

Tough times never last, but tough people do.  

- Robert H Schuller  

The hardest struggle of all is to be something different from what the average man is.  

- Charles M Schwab  

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.  

- Albert Schweitzer  

Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.  

- Seneca  

Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.  

- Seneca  

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.  

- Seneca  

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

- Seneca  

One often learns more from ten days of agony than from ten years of contentment.  

- Merle Shain  

For gold is tried in the fire and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity.  

- Sirach  

The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.  

- Samuel Smiles  

Life has meaning only in the struggle. Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the Gods. So let us celebrate the struggle!  

- Swahili Warrior Song  

Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.  

- Publius Cornelius Tacitus  

We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.  

- Publius Cornelius Tacitus  

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.  

- Rabindranath Tagore  

Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, grow, grow.  

- The Talmud  

Two frogs fell into a bowl of cream. One didn't panic, he relaxed and drowned. The other kicked and struggled so much that the cream turned to butter and he walked out.  

- Source Unknown  

The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them  

- Source Unknown  

If your knees are knocking, kneel on them.  

- Source Unknown  

The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up.  

- Source Unknown  

The stars are constantly shining, but often we do not see them until the dark hours.  

- Source Unknown  

There will be no crown bearers in heaven who are not cross bearers on earth.  

- Source Unknown  

We need tough days to drive us to our knees.  

- Source Unknown  

Nothing bad ever happens without equal or growth  

- Source Unknown  

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.  

- Source Unknown  

If you're on thin ice, you might as well dance.  

- Source Unknown  

If the going is real easy, beware, you may be headed down hill and don't know it.  

- Source Unknown  

I didn't know I'd have to be torn down before I could be built up.  

- Source Unknown  

He who knows the darkness shall learn to live in the light.  

- Source Unknown  

Breakdowns can create breakthroughs. Things fall apart so things can fall together.  

- Source Unknown  

Adversity is a fact of life. It can't be controlled. What we can control is how we react to it.  

- Source Unknown  

In times of storm, the shallowness of the root structure is revealed.  

- Source Unknown  

No one would ever have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in a storm.  

- Source Unknown  

I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time.  

- Sam Walton  

Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.  

- William A Ward  

Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it.  

- Oprah Winfrey  

Sometimes adversity is what you need to face in order to become successful.  

- Zig Ziglar  

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