121 Adversity Quotes For Inspiration

In life, we all face moments of hardship and uncertainty. It’s during these times that resilience and strength become our guiding lights. Adversity, although challenging, often paves the way for growth and transformation. To help you navigate through tough days and emerge stronger, we've curated a collection of the top 121 adversity quotes. These words of wisdom from thought leaders, historical figures, and renowned philosophers will inspire and empower you to rise above the challenges and believe in your inner strength. Dive in and let these quotes uplift your spirit and fuel your journey towards overcoming obstacles.

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. “Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” - Oprah Winfrey

3. “To live is to war with trolls.” - Henrik Ibsen

4. “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

5. “Adversity is like a strong wind. I don't mean just that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be.” - Arthur Golden

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

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

8. “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

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

10. “Memories of the past year came tumbling down on me. The recent changes and reverses were almost overwhelming. I was learning that life flowed like a river. When the run-off was normal, the water ran smoothly. But if there came a downpour, it gushed. In the likeness to a flooding river, life events were caught up in the course of the devouring stream.” - Mary Margaret Jensen

11. “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

12. “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

13. “If our testimonies are strong onthis point and if we feel the absolute assurance that God loves us, we will change our questons. We won't ask, 'Why did this happen?' or 'Why doesn't God care about me?' Instead, our questions will become, 'What can I learn from this experience?' or 'How does the Lord want me to handle this?” - John Bytheway

14. “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

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

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

17. “It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It all works out in the end. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers.” - Gordon B. Hinckley

18. “Struggle is the food from which change is made, and the best time to make the most of a struggle is when it's right in front of your face. Now, I know that might sound a bit simplistic. But, too often we're led to believe that struggling is a bad thing, or that we struggle because we're doing something wrong. I disagree. I look at struggle as an opportunity to grow. True struggle happens when you can sense what is not working for you and you're willing to take the appropriate action to correct the situation. Those who accomplish change are willing to engage the struggle.” - Danny Dreyer

19. “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

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

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

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

23. “There had been times when he knew, somewhere in him, that he would get used to it, whatever it was, because he had learnt that some hard things became softer after a very little while.” - Nick Hornby

24. “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

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

26. “If the road is easy, you're likely going the wrong way.” - Terry Goodkind

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

28. “Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.” - Aristotle

29. “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

30. “The roughest roads often lead to the top.” - Christina Aguilera

31. “Misfortunes make us wise” - Mary Norton

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

33. “Those doves below, the ones utterly cared for, never endangered ones, cannot know tenderness.” - Rainer Maria Rilke

34. “But if everything was always smooth and perfect, you'd get too used to that, you know? You have to have a little bit of disorganization now and then. Otherwise, you'll never really enjoy it when things go right.” - Sarah Dessen

35. “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

36. “If thou art willing to suffer no adversity, how wilt thou be the friend of Christ?” - Thomas A. Kempis

37. “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

38. “Affliction is a good man's shining time.” - Edward Young

39. “Some people make a bad bed, they just have to lie in it.” - Virginia Euwer Wolff

40. “Times of great calamity and confusion have been productive for the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace. The brightest thunder-bolt is elicited from the darkest storm.” - Charles Caleb Colton

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

42. “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

43. “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

44. “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

45. “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

46. “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

47. “We are like the herb which flourisheth most when trampled upon” - Walter Scott

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

49. “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

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

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

52. “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

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

54. “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

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

56. “To live greatly, we must develop the capacity to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness, and triumph with humility.” - Thomas S. Monson

57. “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

58. “My voice was a bare rasp of fear. "In the weaving room, the women say it's never been this bad before..." "They always say that when things get difficult," she answered softly. Then she sat up suddenly as though coming fully awake. Reaching down, she took my chin in her hand and tipped my face to look up at hers. "Remember, Gwen, no matter who says what, the important thing is to understand what needs to be done, and then do it. No matter how hard it is, or how much pain you feel. It's as simple as that, really. Once you know what you have to do, you just do it.” - Persia Woolley

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

60. “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

61. “But little Carlos's most important defense was not his good punch but rather the beginnings of a great education.” - Gina Capaldi

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

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

64. “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

65. “But we believe – nay, Lord we only hope,That one day we shall thank thee perfectlyFor pain and hope and all that led or droveUs back into the bosom of thy love.” - George MacDonald

66. “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

67. “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

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

69. “Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has.” - Billy Graham

70. “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

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

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

73. “Life with trials hard may press me;Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.” - Henry F. Lyte

74. “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

75. “I write about adversity, I praise adversity, not to be pessimistic, but rather to strengthen myself. The more familiar that you are with it, the less likely you are to have a breakdown when it occurs. You become more reflective of its purpose, you understand God's reason for it, and are then able to make the best of everything that you are handed. The darkness is only frightening after constant sunshine.” - Criss Jami

76. “Easily mistaken, it is not about a love for adversity, it is about knowing a strength and a faith so great that adversity, in all its adverse manifestations, hardly even exists.” - Criss Jami

77. “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

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

79. “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

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

81. “If you know someone who tries to drown their sorrows, you might tell them sorrows know how to swim.” - H. Jackson Brown Jr.

82. “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

83. “From the mud of adversity grows the lotus of joy” - Carolyn Marsden

84. “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

85. “A best friend is the only one that walks into your life when the world has walked out.” - Shannon L. Alder

86. “May your life be filled, as mine has been, with love and laughter; and remember, when things are rough all you need is ... Chocolate.” - Geraldine Solon

87. “Success goes to the ones who do. Get up. Show up. Throw up if you have to. Do it afraid, but do it no matter.” - Toni Sorenson

88. “...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

89. “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

90. “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

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

92. “Often people that criticise your life are usually the same people that don't know the price you paid to get where you are today. True friends see the full picture of your soul.” - Shannon Alder

93. “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

94. “...My deepest personal reason for staying in Paris is that whatever I have as a character, good or bad, is based on the fact that since the age of four I have never run away from anything however painful or dangerous when I thought it was my duty to take a stand -- the American Ambassador to France upon being asked to evacuate Paris by the State Department on the eve of Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940” - William C. Bullitt

95. “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

96. “Often those that criticise others reveal what he himself lacks.” - Shannon L. Alder

97. “In the ashes of adversity, lies opportunity.” - S.L. Coelho

98. “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

99. “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

100. “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

101. “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

102. “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.

103. “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

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

105. “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

106. “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

107. “My Dear Son,I am so very proud of you. Now, as you embark on a new journey, I'd like to share this one piece of advice. Always, always remember that - adversity is not a detour. It is part of the path.You will encounter obstacles. You will make mistakes. Be grateful for both. Your obstacles and mistakes will be your greatest teachers. And the only way to not make mistakes in this life is to do nothing, which is the biggest mistake of all. Your challenges, if you let them, will become your greatest allies. Mountains can crush or raise you, depending on which side of the mountain you choose to stand on. All history bears out that the great, those who have changed the world, have all suffered great challenges. And, more times than not it's precisely those challenges that, in God's time, lead to triumph.Abhor victimhood. Denounce entitlement. Neither are gifts, rather cages to damn the soul. Everyone who has walked this earth is a victim of injustice. Everyone.Most of all, do not be too quick to denounce your sufferings. The difficult road you are called to walk may, in fact be your only path to success.” - Richard Paul Evans

108. “Adversity is not a bad thing~It's a God thing!” - Prophetess Dina Rolle

109. “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

110. “One of the major keys to success is to keep moving forward on the journey, making the best of the detours and interruptions, turning adversity into advantage.” - John C. Maxwell

111. “He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.” - Ben Jonson

112. “Our triumph over sorrow is not that we can avoid it but that we can endure it. And therein lies our hope; that in spirit we might become bigger than the problems we face.” - Marianne Williamson

113. “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

114. “Adversity removes the friends prosperity has harvested.” - C.J. Langenhoven

115. “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

116. “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

117. “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

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

119. “Humor can make a serious difference. In the workplace, at home, in all areas of life – looking for a reason to laugh is necessary. A sense of humor helps us to get through the dull times, cope with the difficult times, enjoy the good times and manage the scary times.” - Steve Goodier

120. “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

121. “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