101 Inspiring Quotes On Adversity

In the journey of life, adversity is a constant companion that challenges our resilience and shapes our character. It is in the face of trials and tribulations that we often find the deepest reservoirs of strength within ourselves. For many, the words of wisdom from those who have walked similar paths serve as beacons of hope and motivation. Whether you are navigating personal struggles, professional hurdles, or global challenges, the right words can reignite your spirit and offer a fresh perspective. In this curated collection, we present 101 inspiring quotes on adversity, each chosen to uplift, empower, and remind you of the incredible fortitude within. Let these quotes be your guiding light as you forge ahead and transform challenges into opportunities for growth.

1. “Sweet are the uses of adversity,Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;And this our life, exempt from public haunt,Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,Sermons in stones, and good in everything.” - William Shakespeare

2. “If you want to find out what a man is to the bottom, give him power. Any man can stand adversity — only a great man can stand prosperity. It is the glory of Abraham Lincoln that he never abused power only on the side of mercy” - Robert Ingersoll

3. “I think that little by little I'll be able to solve my problems and survive.” - Frida Kahlo

4. “Sometimes things have to go wrong in order to go right.” - Sherrilyn Kenyon

5. “If you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it;Every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

6. “I suppose sooner or later in the life of everyone comes a moment of trial. We all of us have our particular devil who rides us and torments us, and we must give battle in the end.” - Daphne du Maurier

7. “We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world” - Helen Keller

8. “Who wants to die? Everything struggles to live. Look at that tree growing up there out of that grating. It gets no sun, and water only when it rains. It's growing out of sour earth. And it's strong because its hard struggle to live is making it strong. My children will be strong that way.” - Betty Smith

9. “Life is, in fact, a battle. Evil is insolent and strong; beauty enchanting, but rare; goodness very apt to be weak; folly very apt to be defiant; wickedness to carry the day; imbeciles to be in great places, people of sense in small, and mankind generally unhappy. But the world as it stands is no narrow illusion, no phantasm, no evil dream of the night; we wake up to it, forever and ever; and we can neither forget it nor deny it nor dispense with it.” - Henry James

10. “We live in a day when the adversary stresses on every hand the philosophy of instant gratification. We seem to demand instant everything, including instant solutions to our problems. . .It was meant to be that life would be a challenge. To suffer some anxiety, some depression, some disappointment, even some failure is normal.” - Boyd K. Packer

11. “Life, like classical music, is full of difficult passages that are conquered as much through endurance and determination as through any particular skill.” - Sheri L. Dew

12. “Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.” - Edgar Allan Poe

13. “You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you.” - Mary Tyler Moore

14. “However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.” - Henry David Thoreau

15. “You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.” - Edwin Louis Cole

16. “All events are blessings given to us to learn from.” - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

17. “If for a while the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart. So it has been with the best people who ever lived. (The Inconvenient Messiah, BYU Speeches, Feb 15, 1982)” - Jeffrey R. Holland

18. “It takes no more time to see the good side of life than to see the bad.” - Jimmy Buffett

19. “Remind thyself, in the darkest moments, that every failure is only a step toward success, every detection of what is false directs you toward what is true, every trial exhausts some tempting form of error, and every adversity will only hide, for a time, your path to peace and fulfillment. ” - Og Mandino

20. “Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.” - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

21. “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

22. “Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.” - Conrad Joseph

23. “A leader must lead. Where others see obstacles, he must see opportunities. When others see problems, he must see possibilities ... Civilization is not built on a negation but on an affirmation- an affirmation of the bright and promising possibilities that the future holds for those who are enterprising enough to pursue them.” - David J Vaughan

24. “Misfortunes make us wise” - Mary Norton

25. “We can choose to throw stones, to stumble on them, to climb over them, or to build with them.” - William Arthur Ward

26. “I’ve learned that everything happens for a reason,” the yogi Krishnan told him. “Every event has a why and all adversity teaches us a lesson... Never regret your past. Accept it as the teacher that it is.” - Robin Sharma

27. “The more difficulties one has to encounter, within and without, the more significant and the higher in inspiration his life will be.” - Horace Bushnell

28. “Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.” - Søren Kierkegaard

29. “While you are going through your trial, you can recall your past victories and count the blessings that you do have with a sure hope of greater ones to allow if you are faithful.” - Ezra Taft Benson

30. “And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” - Haruki Murakami

31. “Hardships make or break people.” - Margaret Mitchell

32. “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."[Meditations Divine and Moral]” - Anne Bradstreet

33. “Even in its darkest passages, the heart is unconquerable. It is important that the body survives, but it is more meaningful that the human spirit prevails.” - Dave Pelzer

34. “If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.” - Solon

35. “If you fall-and trust me, you will- make sure you fall on your back. Because if you fall on your back, you can see up. And if you can see up, you can get up. And you can keep going and going and going.” - Hoda Kotb

36. “These are the times that try men's souls.” - Thomas Paine

37. “I daresay it seems foolish; perhaps all our earthly trials will appear foolish to us after a while; perhaps they seem so now to angels. But we are ourselves, you know, and this is now, not some time to come, a long, long way off. And we are not angels, to be comforted by seeing the ends for which everything is sent.” - Elizabeth Gaskell

38. “Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved.” - Martin Luther

39. “Learning to endure times of disappointment, suffering, and sorrow is part of our on-the-job training. These experiences, while often difficult to bear at the time, are precisely the kinds of experiences that stretch our understanding, build our character, and increase our compassion for others.” - Joseph B. Wirthlin

40. “Difficulties are what makes it honorable and interesting to be alive.” - Florida Scott-Maxwell

41. “It takes darkness to be aware of the light.” - Treasure Tatum

42. “So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.” - Lucretius

43. “No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.” - Randy Pausch

44. “Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.” - Robertson Davies

45. “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

46. “Our most significant opportunities will be found in times of greatest difficulty.” - Thomas S. Monson

47. “On accepting adversity in our lives: Always it is initiated by an act of will on our part; we set ourselves to believe in the overruling goodness, providence, and sovereignty of God and refuse to turn aside no matter what may come, no matter how we may feel. I mistakenly thought I could not trust God unless I felt like trusting Him. Now I am learning that trusting God is first of all a matter of the will. I choose to trust in God, and my feelings eventually follow.” - Margaret Clarkson

48. “Some people is born at the start of a long hard row to hoe. Well, I am older than God's dog and been in this world a long time and it seems to me that right from the git-go, Larkin Stanton had the longest and hardest row I've ever seen.” - Sheila Kay Adams

49. “Bullying builds character like nuclear waste creates superheroes. It's a rare occurrence and often does much more damage than endowment.” - Zack W. Van

50. “For when God is said by these things to try men and prove them, to see what is in their hearts and whether they will keep His commandments or no, we are not to understand, that it is for His own information, or that He may obtain evidence Himself of their sincerity (for he needs no trials for His information); but chiefly for their conviction, and to exhibit evidence to their consciences...So when God tempted or tried Abraham with that difficult command of offering up his son, it was not for His satisfaction, whether he feared God or no, but for Abraham's own greater satisfaction and comfort, and the more clear manifestation of the favour of God to him.” - Jonathan Edwards

51. “It's only as bad as you make it.” - Benjamin J. Carey

52. “Funerals aren't scheduled.” - Benjamin J. Carey

53. “The pressure of adversity is the most powerful sustainer of accountability. It's as though everything you do is multiplied by 50 in order to surpass those with a head-start. I was never capable of slacking when at the threshold of failure.” - Criss Jami

54. “In the realm of the unknown, difficulties must be viewed as a hidden treasure! Usually, the more difficult, the better. It's not as valuable if your difficulties stem from your own inner struggle. But when difficulties arise out of increasing objective resistance, that's marvelous!” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

55. “It's hard at times, but it makes a kid strong in ways that most people can't understand. Teaches them that even though people are left behind, new ones will inevitable take their place; that every place has something good - and bad - to offer. It makes a kid grow up fast.” - Nicholas Sparks

56. “A poet should be so crafty with words that he is envied even for his pains.” - Criss Jami

57. “You never really know what's coming. A small wave, or maybe a big one. All you can really do is hope that when it comes, you can surf over it, instead of drown in its monstrosity.” - Alysha Speer

58. “What do they say about meeting a bear in the woods? Oh right, you shouldn't. And to make sure you don't, you should make a lot of noise so that they'll will know where you are and keep their distance because, supposedly, they're as nervous of us as we are of them. Which is all goo, except this bear doesn't seem the least bit nervous. He's giving me a look like I'm Goldilocks, ate his porridge, broke his chair, slept in his bed, and now it's payback time."- Widdershins” - Charles de Lint

59. “I am unpersuaded that relative poverty and hard work are greater adversities than relative affluence and free time.” - Dallin H. Oaks

60. “What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.” - Abraham Lincoln

61. “Love is as simple as the absence of self given to another. God, when invited, fills the void of any unrequited love; hence loving is how one is drawn closer to God no matter its most horrific repercussions.” - Criss Jami

62. “Faithfulness imparts God's reason for all circumstances. No matter what the world says, losing is no longer an option.” - Criss Jami

63. “Disasters work like alarm clocks to the world, hence God allows them. They are shouting, 'Wake up! Love! Pray!” - Criss Jami

64. “The faithful man perceives nothing less than opportunity in difficulties. Flowing through his spine, faith and courage work together: Such a man does not fear losing his life, thus he will risk losing it at times in order to empower it. By this he actually values his life more than the man who fears losing his life. It is much like leaping from a window in order to avoid a fire yet in that most crucial moment knowing that God will appear to catch you.” - Criss Jami

65. “Peace is more of an internal settlement rather than what is visible on the external.” - Criss Jami

66. “No stars gleam as brightly as those which glisten in the polar sky. No water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand. And no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs through adversity. Tested faith brings experience. You would never have believed your own weakness had you not needed to pass through trials. And you would never have known God’s strength had His strength not been needed to carry you through.” - Charles H. Spurgeon

67. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” - J.K. Rowling

68. “We face up to awful things because we can't go around them, or forget them. The sooner you say 'Yes, it happened, and there's nothing I can do about it,' the sooner you can get on with your own life. You've got children to bring up. So you've got to get over it. What we have to get over, somehow we do. Even the worst things.” - Annie Proulx

69. “Life is at its best when everything has fallen out of place, and you decide that you're going to fight to get them right, not when everything is going your way and everyone is praising you.” - Thisuri Wanniarachchi

70. “...the sorrows God sent us brought comfort and strength with them, while the sorrows we brought on ourselves, through folly or wickedness, were by far the hardest to bear.” - L.M. Montgomery

71. “I wanted a woman who could get me out of a Third World prison. Life's too short to hang out with people who aren't resourceful.” - Jeff Bezos

72. “Are you aware of who you really are in relationship to the very God who created the Universe, who scattered the stars and aligned the planets? Only to those who remember and realize that they are literally spirit children of a God who knows and loves them, can the fire of refinement be welcome. Otherwise, pain and adversity are just that, pain and adversity. Fire doesn’t purify; it only burns.” - Toni Sorenson

73. “by indignities men come to dignities” - Francis Bacon

74. “I can't control the wind but I can adjust the sail.” - Ricky Skaggs

75. “It takes a real storm in the average person's life to make him realize how much worrying he has done over the squalls.” - Bruce Barton

76. “Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.” - Abigail Adams

77. “The harder you fall, the heavier your heart; the heavier your heart, the stronger you climb; the stronger you climb, the higher your pedestal.” - Criss Jami

78. “La terre nous en apprend plus sur nous que tous les livres. Parce qu'elle nous résiste. L'homme se découvre quand il se mesure avec l'obstacle.(Terre des hommes)” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

79. “Before your reach your destination, you'll find yourself going through the wilderness. There's some survival skills that you'll need master through the wilderness journey. While in the wilderness, your faith will be tried and tested. You'll become humble. Your vision for your life will get clearer. You're in training for your purpose. You'll lose some friends, because there's some folks who are only with you because of where they think your journey will lead THEM. Don't worry, they're a little confused... but it was meant for them to get lost during this phase. Walk on. Continue on your journey. Soon, you'll be approaching the mountain. Get ready to climb!” - Yvonne Pierre

80. “Spiritual pain is when you can’t stand another moment not knowing the real truth, and when you finally do know you can’t let go.” - Shannon L. Alder

81. “Be careful who you choose as your friends because their bad habits can become your bad habits. Choose wisely...we all have a choice in life.” - Mimi Jenkins

82. “And, in the end, I knew there was nothing better in life than keeping the head and the heart up—and when you cannot see the shoreline, always putting one hand, one word, in front of the other.” - Gerald Hausman

83. “A crisis creates the opportunity to dip deep into the reservoirs of our very being, to rise to levels of confidence, strength, and resolve that otherwise we didn't think we possessed.” - Jon M. Huntsman Sr.

84. “I think adversity magnifies behavior. Tend to be a control freak? You'll become more controlling. Eat for comfort? You'll eat more. And on the positive, if you tend to focus on solutions and celebrate small successes, that's what you'll do in adversity.” - Gretchen Rubin

85. “When emerging from humble beginnings, those around you tend to underestimate your authenticity because they knew you before you were 'somebody'.” - Criss Jami

86. “We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage and the virtue to do them. But we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism.” - Theodore Roosevelt

87. “When you observe that the fire in your room is getting dull, you do not always put on more coal, but simply stir with the poker; so God often uses the black poker of adversity in order that the flames of devotion may burn more brightly.” - Arthur W. Pink

88. “The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is this. Irritation gets into his shell. He does not like them. But when he cannot get rid of them he uses the irritation to do the lovelist thing an oyster ever has the chance to do. If there are irritations in our lives today, there is only one prescription: make a pearl. It may have to be a pearl of patience, but…make a pearl.-In the Treasure Chest, ed. Charles L. Wallis” - Harry Emerson Fosdick

89. “If the rock band U2 had been born in Orange County, California, would they have become just another church worship band?” - Steve Turner

90. “I have wondered why it is that our greatest triumphs spring from our greatest extremity and adversity. Perhaps it is because we are so resistant to change, we only move when our seat becomes too hot to occupy.” - Richard Paul Evans

91. “Through adversity, not only are we given an opportunity to discover our inner strength, we are also given the gift of foresight so we can shine a light for others who go through the experience after us.” - Rachael Bermingham

92. “So, with my knees pierced by needles and my shoulder sewn together by the slender thread of endorphins, I keep to my genuflection and end my story the only way that really fits. As a prayer that seals surrender. World without end. Amen.” - Sabrina Vourvoulias

93. “Helen Keller became deaf, dumb, and blind shortly after birth. Despite her greatest misfortune, she has written her name indelibly in the pages of the history of the great. Her entire life has served as evidence that no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as reality.” - Napoleon Hill

94. “Without darkness, we may never know how bright the stars shine. Without battles, we could not know what victory feels like. Without adversity, we may never appreciate the abundance in our lives. Be thankful, not only for the easy times, but for every experience that has made you who you are.” - Julie-Anne

95. “We cannot infer from prosperity that God is pleased with us, nor can we infer from adversity that he is displeased with us.” - Wilson Benton

96. “I don’t understand hospital chaplains that try to rob my patients of their anger. Sometimes anger is a key motivator that gets people to take action. Anger can push a cancer patient to jump out of his hospital bed, walk down to the nurses station and scream, “I am getting the hell out of here!”. There is a misconception that God is simply sweet and passive. Actually, God can be quite cunning, manipulative and relentless with his children. What we consider as negative traits are actually helpful in molding us. He will use a negative emotion if needed to push people to do things that will change them for the better. He will allow people or situations to derail us if there is a chance that those interactions will push us forward. Personally, I don’t want a God that is going to send some church member to my deathbed with a plate of cookies and tell me to have faith. Actually, I rather have a God that screams, “Get the hell off your ass, stop feeling sorry for yourself. Walk down the hall with that Physical Therapist so you can get on with your life!" A little anger in a person can push them to do amazing things.” - Shannon L. Alder

97. “I don’t believe in the Law of Attraction. There were things I wanted in my life that no amount of positive thinking was going to make it a reality for me. However, I have learned to believe in the Law of Tough Love. Life has thrown a dozen tragedies at me. I did what any Christian would do--prayed for the outcome I wanted, but God was tough and only gave me what I needed. I now realize that life is not about fulfilling a wish list; rather a need list. Good and bad experiences are on the horizon. How else does a person change, grow and evolve? And just like any warrior woman, I won’t simply survive-- but thrive!” - Shannon L. Alder

98. “Trouble makes us one with every human being in the world - and unless we touch others, we're out of touch with life.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

99. “Every violent storm will eventually give way to sunshine; every dark night will finally fade into dawn.” - Steve Goodier

100. “We are stronger than we think. We have emotional, spiritual and even physical resources at our disposal. We may get knocked down, but we don’t have to stay down.” - Steve Goodier

101. “Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man, but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.” - Thomas Carlyle