quotations about adversity
Global fame wrought from adversity is different, an unescapable beast that hounds you everywhere you go. Dealing with adversity verging on the tragic isn't easy when the world wants to know everything about you.
WADE DAVIS
"Mick Fanning (sorta) retires for 2016", Surfing Life, February 23, 2016
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
Adversity is a good thing in the long run if everyone involved understands how it shapes their character, and it brings out the true colors of a team.
BROC THREINEN
"Football preview: Kasson-Mantorville at Lourdes", Post Bulletin, September 30, 2016
Being able to overcome adversity is a great triumph and something to be celebrated. Of course, no one's life will be without difficulty. We should be sure to cherish significant accomplishments in life. However, we must be careful when considering what we will classify as problems and challenges in need of overcoming. While certain characteristics may put a person at a disadvantage in the world as it is today, this does not mean that a certain aspect of their lived experience is the problem itself.
ELIZABETH HASCHER
"The narrative of overcoming", Observer Online, March 2, 2016
Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.
ROBERT LEIGHTON
attributed, A Dictionary of Thoughts
Adversity is the mint in which God stamps upon man his image and superscription.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
That thorny path, those stormy skies, have drawn our spirits nearer; and rendered us, by sorrow's ties, each to the other dearer.
BERNARD BARTON
Not Ours the Vows
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
All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me. You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
WALT DISNEY
attributed, Pearls: Philosophies for Living a Robust and Fulfilling Life
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
With every adversity comes a blessing because a shock acts as a reminder to oneself that we must not get stale in routine.
BRUCE LEE
Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
Prosperity is apt to prevent us from examining our conduct; but adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is beneficial to us.
BRUCE LEE
Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
Bouncing back from disappointment and adversity is a special aspect of sports competition. Great players and great teams have that ability in them.
BRUCE ARMSTRONG
"Britt wrestlers bounce back, claim regionals", Fay Observer, February 17, 2016
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
All character is formed by adversity; but adversity is a very large word, and must be very largely interpreted. So long as it is understood to mean misfortune, external disaster or calamity only, its offices are sure to be misconceived, and its virtue will certainly be missed. Adversity may come in fair forms and bland disguises, seeming to be the very thing it is not. Things adverse are not always things repellent. They may be things attractive, deeply considered. Whatever is adverse, not to our pleasure, enjoyment or happiness merely, but to our virtue; whatever stands over against our better conscience, is opposite to our finest feelings, hostile to our truest principles, is adversity. It is the element of antagonisms, of opposition, of moral assault, let it appear in whatever guise it may. If it provokes our hearts to involuntary resistance, causes reaction and resentment, it is the discipline that educates character. And for this we must be on our guard. The finest characters are educated by struggle with adversity of this kind, by wrestling with powers that seem friendly.
O. B. PROTHINGHAM
"The School of Adversity", The Herald of Health, Aug. 1872
People never fail to amaze me. They face the unimaginable with a shot of grace and a rush of adrenaline; they steel their nerves; they summon their cool or anger or faith or whatever it takes to pull them through, and they go on to live another day.
OPRAH WINFREY
O Magazine, Apr. 2007
If afflictions refine some, they consume others.
THOMAS FULLER
Gnomologia
The truth is that adversity is a part of most days. Whether you are ultimately weakened or strengthened by each event, or the accumulation of events, will depend on you first mastering the ability to Take It On!
ERIK WEIHENMAYER
The Adversity Advantage
As the paper though it entereth the press white, yet when it cometh forth black is eagerly sought to be perused; so do thou let thy life, though darkened by adversity, be made all the more useful to thy fellows.
IVAN PANIN
Thoughts
There is, too, a very great difference in the purpose served both by those events which we call adverse and those called prosperous. For the good man is neither uplifted with the good things of time, nor broken by its ills; but the wicked man, because he is corrupted by this world's happiness, feels himself punished by its unhappiness.
ST. AUGUSTINE
The City of God