adversity - adversity 2 - adversity 3 - adversity 5

Adversity is the trial of principle.
Without it people hardly know
whether they are honest or not.

Henry Fielding

 

Emergencies have always been necessary to progress.  It was darkness which produced the lamp.  It was fog that produced the compass.  It was hunger that drove us to exploration.  And it took a depression to show us the value of a job.

Victor Hugo
  
It is in the whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has meaning.  Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure.  Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom.  It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually.  It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.

M. Scott Peck
  
People of character find a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that they can realize their potentialities.

Charles DeGaulle
  
You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

Maya Angelou

    

We could never learn to be brave and patient,
if there were only joy in the world.

Helen Keller
   

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Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venemous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt in public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
I would not change it.

attributed to
William Shakespeare

    

Only in winter can you tell which trees are truly green.
Only when the winds of adversity blow can you tell
whether an individual or a country has steadfastness.

John F. Kennedy

    

Kites rise highest against the wind--
not with it.

Winston Churchill

Adversity causes some people to break;
others to break records.

 William A. Ward
   

   
Sometimes great difficulties are permitted only in order to
strengthen the character.

Robert Benson
  

The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole creator
of all our adversities.

Sophocles
  

Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is
the only balance to weigh friends.

Plutarch
  

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On our other website, Simple and Profound, we present short, pithy words of wisdom
without categorizing or organizing--simply five short quotations per page,
a veritable grab bag of thoughts to help us ponder the important issues in life.
Click here to visit--you'll be glad you did!

   
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater.
Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

William Hazlitt
    

They have seen but half the universe who never
have been shown the house of pain.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

  

Misfortune is the test of a person's merit.

Seneca

   

A high heart ought to bear calamities and not flee them,
since in bearing them appears the grandeur of the mind
and in fleeing them the cowardice of the heart.

Pietro Aretino

  

Adversity is like the period of the rain. . . cold, comfortless, unfriendly
to people and to animals; yet from that season have their birth the flower,
the fruit, the date, the rose and the pomegranate.

Walter Scott

   

People's best successes come after their disappointments.

Henry Ward Beecher

  

adversity - adversity 2 - adversity 3 - adversity 5
   
The happy and efficient people in this world are those who accept
trouble as a normal detail of human life and resolve to capitalize on
it when it comes along.  The hiding places of people
are discovered by affliction.

James Alexander
  
Adversities do not make a person either weak or strong,
but they reveal what we are.

Faith Forsyte
The ultimate measure of a person is not where he or she
stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where
he or she stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have always grown from my problems and challenges,
from the things that don't work out.  That's when I've really learned.

Carol Burnett
For every dark experience, something good comes of it.  Sickness is an invitation for a course correction to improve the quality of your life.  Painful relationships move you to honor yourself and claim better.  Losing a job can motivate you to create a more meaningful, passion-filled career.  Overbearing monarchs incite downtrodden people to establish democracies.

Alan Cohen
The Tao Made Easy
  

Before you begin a thing, remind yourself that difficulties and delays
quite impossible to foresee are ahead. . . .  You can only see one thing
clearly and that is your goal.  Form a mental vision of that
and cling to it through thick and thin.

Kathleen Norris

  

We have some inspiring and motivational books that may interest you.  Our main way of supporting this site is through the sale of books, either physical copies or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the online reader).  All of the money that we earn through them comes back to the site in one way or another.  Just click on the picture to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and non-fiction!
   
Defeat is a school in which Truth always grows strong.

Henry Ward Beecher
   

Those who can’t endure the bad will not live to see the good.

Yiddish proverb

   

Positive thinking is not the destination; it is the journey.  An optimistic person
will be constantly challenged--by external circumstances as well as
inner fears and doubts.  Always remember that these tests are like
a ladder you must climb.  As you move past each rung, your optimism
strengthens and your confidence begins to flex newly found muscle
that you might never have developed otherwise.

Montague Ewards

   

adversity - adversity 2 - adversity 3 - adversity 5
   
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
  

Most very successful people can remember that their success was
discovered and built out of adversity of some kind.  It's not the
problems that beset us--problems are surprisingly pretty much
the same for millions of others--it's how we react to problems
that determines not only our degree of growth and maturity
but our future success--and, perhaps, much of our health.

Earl Nightingale

  

I am an old man and have known a great many
troubles, but most of them have never happened.

Mark Twain

   

  
We become wiser in adversity; prosperity destroys
our appreciation of the right.

Seneca
  

The art of living lies less in eliminating troubles than in growing with them.

Bernard Baruch

  

The only way to meet affliction is to pass through it solemnly, slowly,
with humility and faith.  Then its very ways of misery will divide and
become to us a wall, on the right side and the left, until the gulf
narrows before our eyes, and we land on the opposite shore.

Dinah M. Craik

  
Our lives are full of separations that shake us up, force us
to attend to our emotional selves and to learn new ways
of being in the world.  Although many of our losses are
painful, they encourage our gains.  The lesson life is trying
to teach us is that, regardless of the challenges and
changes in the physical world, we will abide in peace by
aligning ourselves with our inner changelessness.  The
power of God in us is more than equal to any moment—
no matter what it brings.  We live in a loving, supportive
universe that is always saying yes to us.

Susan L. Taylor
  

    
   

Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.