adversity - adversity 2 - adversity 4 - adversity 5
     

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

Malcolm Forbes

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Daily Meditations, Year One - Year Two - Year Three - Year Four
     
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When the first Superman movie came out, I was frequently asked, "What is a hero?"
My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action
without considering the consequences. . . . Now my definition is completely different.
I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere
and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.

Christopher Reeve

If we fight against the waves that pass over us in life, we are overpowered.
If we move with the waves in life as they roll over us, the wave passes on.

Pesikta Zurtarti

The happy and efficient people in this world are those
who accept trouble as a normal detail of human life
and resolve to capitalize it when it comes along.

H. Bertram Lewis

Sometimes things which at the moment may be perceived as
obstacles--and actually be obstacles, difficulties, or
drawbacks--can in the long run result in some good end which
would not have occurred if it had not been for the obstacle.

Steve Allen

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you,
till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer,
never give up then, for that is just the place and time
that the tide will turn.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

The gem cannot be polished without friction,
nor people perfected without trials.

Chinese saying

adversity - adversity 2 - adversity 4 - adversity 5

Adversity?  It's a tonic, not a stumbling block!  Every
adversity carries the seed of an equal or greater benefit.

Napoleon Hill

In times of adversity, I remember I am strong enough to meet the challenges
of my life.  I am equal to every situation, a match for every difficulty.  Sourced
in the power of the Universe, I allow that power to work through me.  I meet
calamity with strength.  I have stamina.  Rather than draw on limited resources,
I draw on the infinite power within me that moves through me to accomplish
its good.  I am fueled by all the love, all the strength there is.  Loving strength
melts mountains.  I am ever partnered and supplied by the universal flow.
Knowing this, I do not doubt my strength.  I am strong and secure.

Julia Cameron

Adversity may be used as a stepping stone to better things, or it
may be used as an excuse for failure.  You can measure your
own worth by your reactions to adversity.

J.M. Jussawalla

If things are tough, remember that every flower had to go through a whole lot
of dirt to get there.  So do not grieve about a bitter experience.  The present
is slipping by while you are regretting the past and worrying about the future.
Regret will not prevent tomorrow’s sorrows; it will only rob today of its strength.

Barbara Johnson

Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much
as adversity has.  Out of pain and problems have come the
sweetest songs, and the most gripping stories.

Billy Graham

Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it;
for such do always see that in every cloud is an angel's face.

St. Jerome

adversity - adversity 2 - adversity 4 - adversity 5

If it is true that strength is the child of effort and pain, then most of us
will have the opportunity to learn strength. . . . Effort is standing up to
the storm.  Pain comes from enduring the worst the storm can throw
at us.  But then so does strength.

Joseph M. Marshall III

If we did not sometimes taste of adversity,
prosperity would not be so welcome.

Anne Bradstreet

The human capacity to fight back will always astonish
doctors and philosophers.  It seems, indeed, that
there are no circumstances so bad and no obstacles so big
that human beings cannot conquer them.

Jean Tetreau

Your first big trouble can be a bonanza if you live through it.  Get through
the first trouble, and you'll probably make it through the next one.

Ruth Gordon

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

Rose Kennedy

In order to realize the worth of the anchor, we need
to feel the stress of the storm.

Corrie ten Boom

A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.

Helen Keller

Don't let the workings of adversity totally absorb your life.  Try to understand
what you can.  Act where you are able; then let the matter rest with the Lord for
a period while you give to others in worthy ways before you take on appropriate
concern again.  Please learn that as you wrestle with a challenge and feel sadness
because of it, you can simultaneously have peace and rejoicing.  Yes, pain,
disappointment, frustration, and anguish can be temporary scenes played out on
the stage of life.  Behind them can be a background of peace and the positive
assurance that a loving Father will keep His promises.

Richard G. Scott

People are afraid when dark clouds gather and thunder clashes.
But clouds and thunder are nothing; they are only the sources
of rain for the hot and parched earth.  Do not be afraid of clouds;
do not be afraid of difficulties.  Keep moving straight ahead.
Give your hand to God, and he will keep you
in the light twenty-four hours a day.

Baba Virsa Singh

It is the wind and the rain, O God, the cold and the storm that
make this earth of yours to blossom and bear its fruit.  So in our
lives it is storm and stress and hurt and suffering that make real
men and women bring the world's work to its highest perfection.

W.E.B. DuBois