Coping With Adversity: Quotes

Anon 
Do not fear the winds of adversity.
Remember: A kite rises against the wind rather than with it

Take a deep breath. It calms the mind

There are times in everyone's life when something constructive is born out of adversity... when things seem so bad that you've got to grab your fate by the shoulders and shake it

Not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced

In every obstacle there is an opportunity

When in doubt just take the next small step

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Douglas AdamsDon't panic

Human beings, who are almost unique in their ability to learn from the experience of others are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

Konrad AdenauerA thick skin is a gift from God

David Allen Getting Things Done 
Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax

Anything that causes you to over react or under react can control you, and often does

You won't see how to do it until you see yourself doing it

Muhammad AliWhat keeps me going is goals

AristotleAll human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.

It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way. 

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are an aid and a comfort in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honour.

We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act but a habit

Marcus AureliusThe first rule is to keep an untoubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are

If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.

Think of what you have rather than of what you lack. Of the things you have, select the best and then reflect how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them

Richard BachiWhen you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you
Either you'll find something solid to stand on
Or you'll be taught how to fly

Bernard BaruchThe art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than growing with them

Nick BaylisIt's not the troubles we run into, it's what we do about them which determines their net effect upon our lives ... by the very act of trying, our spirit is making progress

It's not our past which most determines the possibilities open to us, it's what we choose here and now to make happen in our present and future.

It is the ability to focus our attention on self-motivating thoughts, rather than being mesmerised by negatives, which rests at the very heart of a healthy approach to life.

The sort of resilient personality who can bounce back quickly after a major setback, does so largely because they quickly generate positive emotions which serve as a physical and psychological antidote to bad news.

Alexander Graham BellWhen one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us

Arnold BennettIt's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view's much better from the top

Benton & BowlesIt's not creative unless it sells

W I BeveridgeThe human mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with a similar energy

BoethiusNo man can ever be secure until he has been foresaken by Fortune

Niels BohrAn expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field

 Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it

Usain BoltRacing comes easily to me, especially the 100 metres. That is why, no matter how fast I run the run the 100 metres, the 200 will always mean more to me, because of the effort I've put in

Jackson BrowneDon't be afraid to go out on a limb, that's where the fruit is

BuddhaDo not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment

Albert CamusReal generosity to the future lies in giving all to the present

Alan CarrAll change requires effort and sacrifice. Sometimes action plans fail because they are based on the idea that there is a 'magic bullet' which on its own can solve our problems.This is not true. Complex human problems typically require complex solutions with many different components

Julius CeasarExperience is the teacher of all things

Truman CapoteFailure is the condiment that gives success its flavour

Carlos CastanedaThe basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything either as a blessing or a curse

Emile ChartierNothing is more dangerous than an idea when it's the only one you have

Anton ChekovAny idiot can face a crisis, it's day to day living that wears you out

Trammell CrowThere's as much risk in doing nothing as in doing something

Chinese CurseMay you get what you wish for

Chinese ProverbsGood luck seldom comes in pairs but bad things never walk alone.

Use attack as the tactic of defense.

One joy scatters a hundred griefs

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.

Agatha ChristieI have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

ChumbawambaI get knocked down
But I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down

Winston Churchill
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

If you're going through hell, keep going.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often

Frank ClarkIf you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.

We find comfort among those who agree with us, growth among those who don't.

Hillary ClintonNever waste a good crisis

Robert CollierIn every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time

ConfuciusOur greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.

The gem cannot be polished without friction nor man without trials.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience,which is the bitterest.

James Fenimore CooperThe affairs of life embrace a multitude of interests and he who reasons in any one of them without consulting the rest, is a visionary unsuited to control the business of the world

Joseph ConradFacing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it!

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow 
A person can make himself happy or miserable, regardless of what is happening 'outside', just by changing the contents of consciousness.  We all know individuals who can transform hopeless situations into challenges to be overcome just through the force of their personalities.  This ability to persevere despite obstacles and setbacks is the quality people most admire in others, and justly so; it is probably the most important trait not only for succeeding in life, but for enjoying it as well.  To develop this trait one must find ways to order consciousness so as to be in control of feelings and thoughts.

Charles Darwin It's not the strongest who survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most adaptable to change

Tommy DavisSome people have built in filters that screen out the boos and amplify the hurrahs. Those are the people who never know when they're in trouble

Daniel DennettTry to acquire the weird practice of savoring your mistakes, delighting in uncovering the strange quirks that led you astray. Then, when you have sucked out all the goodness to be gained from having made them, you can cheerfully forget them and go on to the next big opportunity

Walt DisneyYou may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

Benjamin DisrealiThere is no education like adversity

H A DorfmanSelf discipline is a form of freedom. Freedom from laziness and lethargy, freedom from the expectations and demands of others, freedom from weakness and fear and doubt. Self-discipline allows a pitcher to feel his individuality, his inner strength, his talent. He is master of, rather than a slave to, his thoughts and emotions

Wayne DyerNever underestimate your power to change yourself; never overestimate your power to change others 

Thomas EdisonWhen down at the mouth remember Jonah - he came out all right

If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves

Albert EinsteinIn the middle of difficulty lies opportunity

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them

Imagination is more important than knowledge

Duke EllingtonA problem is a chance for you to do your best

Ralph Waldo EmersonWe acquire the strength we have overcome.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

All life is an experiment, The more experiments you make the better.

Friedrich EngelsAn ounce of action is worth a ton of theory

Marilyn FergusonUltimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom

Henry FordLife is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward

Think you can, think you can't. Either way you'll be right.

Harry FosdickHe who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles

Viktor Frankl: Man's search for meaning When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves

Sigmund FreudIf you can't do it, give up!

Eric FrommWho will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.

Robert GallagherEven if you fall on your face you're still moving forward

Shakti GawainYou create opportunities by asking for them

Anything in life that we don't accept will simply make trouble for us until we make peace with it

We avoid the things that we're afraid of because we think there will be dire consequences if we confront them. But the truly dire consequences in our lives come from avoiding things that we need to learn about or discover

Andre GideI owe much to my friends; but, all things considered, it strikes me that I owe even more to my enemies. The real person springs life under a sting even better than under a caress.

Edward GibbonThe winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators

We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest and we must win

GoetheFresh activity is the only thing that overcomes adversity

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them become what they are capable of becoming 

Harry GoldenThe only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.

Daniel GolemanWhen the darkness is seen as a necessary prelude to the creative light, one is less likely to ascribe frustration to personal inadequacy or label it as bad

Laurence Gonzales: Deep Survival To survive you must surrender without giving in, that is to say, fully accept the reality in all its horror and never give up the will to survive. That allows you to quickly adapt to the situation and dedicate yourself to the present moment rather than wallow in denial

As you run out of options and energy you must become resigned to your plight. Like it or not you must make a new mental map of where you are, not where you wish you were. To survive you must find yourself, then it won't matter where you are.

Harry GrayNo one achieved greatness by playing it safe

Henepola GunaratanaWe have to learn to be kind to ourselves. In the long run avoiding unpleasantness is a very unkind thing to do to yourself

You can't make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you see yourself exactly as you are now.  As soon as you do that changes will flow naturally

Mark HansenDon't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.

Robert HarrisThe natural impulse of men is to follow and whoever has the strongest sense of purpose will always dominate the rest.

Woody HayesThere's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you

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

Robert HeinleinA human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects

Benny HillJust because no one complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect

Napoleon HillMost great people have attained their greatest success just 1 step beyond their greatest failure

Self-discipline begins with mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think you can't control what you do. Simply, self dicipline enables you to think first and act afterwards

Oliver Wendell HolmesIf I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it.

HoraceAdversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.

Rule your mind or it will rule you

Victo HugoAdversity makes men, prosperity makes monsters

William JamesEverybody ought to do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice

Lyndon JohnsonWhat convinces is conviction. Believe in the argument you're advancing. If you don't you're as good as dead. The other person will sense that something isn't there, and no chain of reasoning, no matter how logical or elegant or brilliant, will win your case for you

Carl JungEven a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity

David KekichThinking is the very essence of, and the most difficult thing to do in business and in life. Empire builders spen hour after hour on mental work...while others party. If you're not consciously aware of putting forth the effort to exert self-guided integrative thinking...then you're giving in to laziness and no longer control your life

Garrison KeillorSome luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.

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

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world

John F KennedyWhen written in Chinese the word 'crisis' is comprised of 2 characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity

There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction

Rudyard KiplingIf you can meet with Triumph and Disaster 
And treat those two imposters just the same...
Yours is the earth and everything that's in it
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Sue KnightDo what you always do and you'll get what you've always got

Kenneth KraftA person who is deeply responsive to the conditions in which he finds himself will be creative

Craig LambertRowers have a word for this frictionless state: swing...Trying too hard sabotages boat speed. Trying becomes striving and striving undoes itself...swing is a state of arrival

Lao TzuIf you do not change direction you may end up where you are heading

When you correct your mind everything else falls into place

T E LawrenceAll men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by the night in the dusty recesses of their mind wake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

Max LernerThe turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt

H T LeslieThe game of life lies not so much in holding a good hand but in playing a bad one well

Vince LombardiPractice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect

Maori ProverbTurn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you

Edwin MarkhamDefeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.

Michael McGriffyBlessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape

Mignon MclaughlinDespair is anger with no place to go

Archibald McLeishThere is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience

John MillerIf you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be

Kenjii MiyazawaWe must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey

MontaigneNot being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me 

Monty Python and the Holy GrailLet me face the peril

Rosabeth Moss CanterThe middle of every successful project looks like a disaster

George NordenholtNo matter how big and tough a problem may be, get rid of confusion by taking one little step toward solution. Do something

Friedrich NietzscheHe who has a why to live for can bear almost any how

OvidLuck affects everything. Let your hook always be cast in the stream, where you least expect it there will be a fish 

General George PattonA good plan vigorously executed now is far better is than a perfect plan executed next week

If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn't thinking

Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom

The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That's  the time to listen to every fear you can imagine. When you have collected all the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off your fears and go ahead.

Norman Vincent PealeChange your thoughts and you change the world

PlutarchTo do an evil act is base. To do a good one without incurring danger is common enough. But it is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds though he risks everything in doing them.

General Colin Powell1. It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. 
2. Get mad, then get over it. 
3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it. 
4. It can be done! 
5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it. 
6. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision. 
7. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours. 
8. Check small things. 
9. Share credit. 
10. Remain calm. Be kind. 
11. Have a vision. Be demanding. 
12. Don't take counsel of your fears or naysayers. 
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Ambrose RedmoonCourage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgement that something is more important than fear

Robert RingerSuccess is a matter of understanding and religiously practicing simple, specific habits that always lead to succes

August RodinNothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely

Will RogersThe worst thing to happen to you may be the best thing for you if you don't let it get the best of you

When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging

Theodore RooseveltFar better it is to dare mighty things, even though chequered by failure, than to dwell in that perpetual twilight that knows not victory nor defeat

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering

Helen RowlandThe follies which a man regrets most in his life are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity

Theodore RubinThe problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem

John RuskinMen were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise & perfect in all their actions

Russian ProverbLife will never be just a walk through an open field

Gorge SantayanaFanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim

Charles SchwabThe best place to succeed is where you are with what you have

Martin Seligman 
It's a matter of ABC: When we encounter ADVERSITY, we react by thinking about it. Our thoughts rapidly congeal into BELIEFS. These beliefs may become so habitual we don't even realize we have them unless we stop to focus on them. And they don't just sit there idly; they have CONSEQUENCES. The beliefs are the direct cause of what we feel and what we do next. They can spell the difference between dejection and giving up, on the one hand, and well-being and constructive action on the other. The first step is to see the connection between adversity, belief, and consequence. The second step is to see how the ABCs operate every day in your own life.

SenecaA man's as miserable as he thinks he is

Brave men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war

When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind

George SheehanIf you want to win anything - a race, your self, your life - you have to go a little beserk

Shunryu SuzukiIf your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything

Fran TarkentonFear causes people to draw back from situations. It brings on mediocrity, it dulls creativity, it sets one up to be a loser in life

Mother Teresa
I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.

Henry ThoreauIf one advances in the direction of his dreams, one will meet with success unexpected in common hours

James ThurberLet us not look back in anger or forward in fear but around in awareness

Leo TolstoyI am always with myself and it is I who am my tormentor

Brian TracySuccess is goals, everything else is commentary

Mark TwainA man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks and then starting on the first one

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

V.I.N. CENTThere are three basic types, Mr. Pizer: The Wills, the Won’ts, and the Can’ts. The Wills accomplish everything, the Won’ts oppose everything, and the Can’ts won’t try anything

War OfficeKeep calm and carry on

Dennis WaitleyThe winner's edge is all the attitude not the aptitude

John WayneTomorrow is the most important thing in life. It comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday

E B WhiteIf the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning, torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the day.

YodaTry? There is no try. Only do or not do

W W ZiegeNothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal and nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude

Zig Ziglar
Sometimes adversity is what you need to face to become successful