adversity quotes

‚Tis better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of.

Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

So, for example, a country was into recession right after I was sworn in, a dot-com bust had taken place. Then the attacks of September the 11th, and then of course the great financial meltdown in the -the fundamental question facing any presidency is how do you deal with the hand you’re dealt?

I was born in a very poor family. I used to sell tea in a railway coach as a child. My mother used to wash utensils and do lowly household work in the houses of others to earn a livelihood. I have seen poverty very closely. I have lived in poverty. As a child, my entire childhood was steeped in poverty.

The man who has no problems is out of the game.

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.

God never promised us a trouble-free life.

I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people – one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion’s den. You can’t just play around with all those big cats – you’ve got to take somebody on.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

I grew up in the east side of Detroit in an area where there was very little, except for a lot of scarcity, poverty and hunger. I never woke up saying, ‚I’m an orphan again today, isn’t this terrible? Poor me.‘

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

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.

Israel was not created in order to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.

You’re going to go through tough times – that’s life. But I say, ‚Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.‘ See the positive in negative events.

There is no education like adversity.

Life is just one damned thing after another.

Storms make trees take deeper roots.

When people are taken out of their depths they lose their heads, no matter how charming a bluff they may put up.

You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it’s important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.

When it all got taken away, I was becoming a young man. So I had to sacrifice to leave my family… Sleeping in my car, getting an apartment for a month and getting evicted the next month. Staying in the $25, $50 hotels.

Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.

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.

Everyone goes through adversity in life, but what matters is how you learn from it.

When times are bad is when the real entrepreneurs emerge.

The eagle has no fear of adversity. We need to be like the eagle and have a fearless spirit of a conqueror!

Life isn’t meant to be easy. It’s hard to take being on the top – or on the bottom. I guess I’m something of a fatalist. You have to have a sense of history, I think, to survive some of these things… Life is one crisis after another.

The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.

You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.

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

Losing is tough.

As a medical doctor, I have known the face of adversity. I have seen much of death and dying, suffering and sorrow. I also remember the plight of students overwhelmed by their studies and of those striving to learn a foreign language. And I recall the fatigue and frustration felt by young parents with children in need.

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.

I’m not the sort to back away from a fight. I don’t believe in shrinking from anything. It’s not my speed; I’m a guy who meets adversities head on.

Little things console us because little things afflict us.

Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.

Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man… It is more powerful than external circumstances.

True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity, before it is entitled to the appellation.

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.

The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil.

Good luck has its storms.

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

Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has.

There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.

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

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Weak minds sink under prosperity as well as adversity; but strong and deep ones have two high tides.

After May 1940, the good times were few and far between; first there was the war, then the capitulation, and then the arrival of the Germans, which is when the trouble started for the Jews.

My life as a child did not prepare me for the fact that the world is full of cruel and bitter things.

Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition – such as lifting weights – we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.

Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.

There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.

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.

Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.