Adversity - Quotations about Adversity

 

Adversity

 

The earth is sliced into furrows that seeds may burst with life; even thus with our wounds. ~Henry Stanley Haskins, "The Eternal Balance," Meditations in Wall Street, 1940

 

 

The only thing that's the end of the world is the end of the world. ~President Barack Obama, farewell press conference, 2017 January 18th

 

 

I shall come, not as one who has escaped pain, but as one who has glorified it. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "Songs of Longing: XXII," At the Roots of Grasses, 1923

 

 

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire—then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. Learn to separate the inconveniences from the real problems. You will live longer. ~Sigmund Wollman, quoted by Robert Fulghum, Uh-Oh, 1991

 

 

For thirty years now, in times of stress and strain, when something has me backed against the wall and I'm ready to do something really stupid with my anger, a sorrowful face appears in my mind and asks... "Problem or inconvenience?" I think of this as the Wollman Test of Reality. Life is lumpy. And a lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same lump. One should learn the difference. ~Robert Fulghum, Uh-Oh

 

 

Many things are hard... Life comes at you in pieces sometimes too big to avoid. ~Simon Van Booy, The Illusion of Separateness, 2013

 

 

Child, when hard luck fall it just keep fallin'. ~Alice Childress, Wine in the Wilderness, 1969 [Oldtimer –tg]

 

 

We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, "Why did this happen to me?" unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way. ~Author unknown

 

 

You peer into my life to find a lingering past, but I tell you it was sunk ten thousand fathoms deep and weighted down with my dead self. You look into my breast to find that old, old open wound, but I tell you I seared it with my hot tears and only the cicatrix is there. You look into my eyes to read that oft-told story of defeat, but I tell you that the plot was changed and you will see the flag of conquest waving from the turrets of my soul. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Prayer, 1904

 

 

A bend in the road is not the end of the road — unless you fail to make the turn. ~Author unknown, c. 1990s

 

 

The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief... ~William Shakespeare, Othello, c.1604  [I, 3, Duke of Venice]

 

 

Earth's tribulations diminish in proportion to the elevation of our souls. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882

 

 

I'm sorry to say so

but, sadly, it's true

that Bang-ups

and Hang-ups

can happen to you.

~Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!, 1990

 

 

Don’t let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life. ~Author unknown

 

 

And then again in the very effort to do anything, however small, one is hampered by circumstances at every step till we are inclined to throw up the fight in despair... "Circumstances" spur as much as they hinder us; it is in the struggle day by day with them that we gain muscle for the real life fight... ~John Richard Green, letter to Louise von Glehn, 1870

 

 

The best thing I know in favor of TIGHT SHOES is that it makes a fellow forget all of his other troubles. ~Josh Billings, revised by H. Montague

 

 

Pain is the great teacher of mankind. Beneath its breath souls develop. ~Marie Dubsky, Freifrau von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916), translated by Mrs Annis Lee Wister, 1882

 

 

Bad is never good until worse happens. ~Danish proverb

 

 

So, boys and girls, you must learn to rough it a little. Don't be a china doll, going to smash at every hard knock. If you get hard blows take them cheerily and as easily as you can. Even if some blow comes when you least expect it, and knocks you off your feet for a minute, don't let it floor you long.... keep right on in a happy, companionable, courageous, helpful spirit, and let the world know that you don't break easily. ~Silas X. Floyd (1869–1923), "The Strenuous Life," Floyd's Flowers: or, Duty and Beauty for Colored Children, 1905

 

 

It just wouldn't be a picnic without the ants. ~Author unknown

 

 

Life may take everything out of my days, but the real things remain. You may destroy my castles, but I have the timbers to build ten thousand more. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: LXXXIII," A Soul's Faring, 1921

 

 

If, when most desperate, we examine our misery, we find it but a drop spattered from seas of trouble. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Seven Seventy Seven Sensations, 1897

 

 

Sometimes in tragedy we find our life's purpose — the eye sheds a tear to find its focus. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

 

 

Not alone for that which is mine will I rejoice, but for that which has been withheld, which was coveted and longed for, but denied, for I am what I am for having had to rise superior to the need. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Prayer, 1904

 

 

We carry our burden on and on, until one day, suddenly, we laugh and set it down upon the ground. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912

 

 

The problem with troubleshooting is that trouble shoots back. ~Author unknown

 

 

Adversity introduces a man to himself. ~Author unknown

 

 

The smoothest path is no guarantee against a broken neck. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Seven Seventy Seven Sensations, 1897

 

 

The difficulties of life are intended to make us better, not bitter. ~George Gritter, 1950s

 

 

Suffering is above, not below. And everyone thinks that suffering is below. And everyone wants to rise. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

 

 

Linger not in your sorrows. You do not belong there. ~Dodinsky

 

 

The Lord gives us friends to push us to our potential — and enemies to push us beyond it. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

 

 

...the beauty of the world which is so soon to perish, has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. ~Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, 1929

 

 

There's a curious thing about pain or hardship. In the beginning, it's an enemy, it's something that you don't want to face or think about or deal with. Yet with time it becomes almost a friend. If you've lost someone you love very much, in the beginning you can't bear it, but as the years go by, the pain of losing them is what reminds you so vividly of them — that they were alive. ~Audrey Hepburn, 1990

 

 

Fortune knocks but once at any man's door, but misfortune has much more patience. ~20,000 Quips & Quotes, Evan Esar, 1968

 

 

Adversity and failure are woven into the fabric of existence; without them, there can be neither test of mettle nor triumph of success. ~Dr. Idel Dreimer, lumpenbangenpiano.com

 

 

Difficulties were opportunities inside out, she assured herself... ~Gwen Davis, Marriage, 1981

 

 

Don't mind a few bruises. Life's paths are full of stones and thorns. All are bound to hurt a little. ~Minna Thomas Antrim (1861–1950), Don'ts for Girls, 1902

 

 

But you know my motto — problems are only opportunities with thorns on them. ~Hugh Miller, Snow on the Wind, 1987

 

 

Thorns and stings

And those such things

Just make stronger

Our angel wings.

~Terri Guillemets, "Pierced flight," 2003

 

 

Half the annoyances of life will disappear if one is only patient under them. Almost all the other half will go the same way if one does not worry over them. ~Frank A. De Puy, "Happiness in the Home: Be Patient," The New Century Home Book, 1900

 

 

Sometimes I think my life would make a great TV movie. It even has the part where they say, "Stand by. We are experiencing temporary difficulties." ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

 

 

Life may break my body and my days — and my soul may laugh at her impotency.

She may destroy me, and I may go laughing over the hills. A few hours mutilated, and eternity lies in the residuum.

She may mar the realities, but what of my dreams!

~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "Songs of Longing: V," At the Roots of Grasses, 1923

 

 

Yes, one must suffer, even in vain, so as not to have lived in vain. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

 

 

When in sickness, age, or sorrow,

Through great shadows we must move,

Of all earthly lights the dearest

Shines from hearts of those we love.

~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882

 

 

Despair is anger with no place to go. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

 

 

Every flower must grow through dirt. ~Proverb

 

 

Life is hard to bear. But do not pretend to be so frail! We are all good he-asses and she-asses of burden. ~Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), "Of Reading and Writing," Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, translated from the German by Alexander Tille, 1896

 

 

Again and again we cry "I can bear no more!" — that is the human of us. And again and again we bear more, — that is the god of us. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: LXI," A Soul's Faring, 1921

 

 

It's because so much happens. Too much happens. That's it. Man performs, engenders, so much more than he can or should have to bear. That's how he finds that he can bear anything. That's it. That's what is so terrible. That he can bear anything, anything. ~William Faulkner

 

 

When I see a man who, bravely,

      Meets realities in life,

      Who carries on, courageously,

      In the face of grief and strife;

Then, I bow my head in honour

      Of this man, with courage rare,

      Who has such strength of character,

      Who, bravely, his burdens bears!

~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham (1880–1971), "Courage"

 

 

God gave burdens, also shoulders. ~Yiddish proverb

 

 

I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders. ~Jewish proverb

 

 

This we know:

We were

not meant

to suffer

so much

& to learn

nothing.

~Alice Walker, from "The Taste of Grudge," Hard Times Require Furious Dancing, 2010

 

 

The human spirit is stronger than anything that can happen to it. ~Captain C. C. Scott, as quoted in Forbes, 1932

 

 

I guess if you take away the pain in life it means having no beauty to hope for. ~Daniel, @blindedpoet

 

 

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

 

 

There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity. No man knows what the wife of his bosom is — no man knows what a ministering angel she is — until he has gone with her through the fiery trials of this world. ~Washington Irving, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., 1820

 

 

Blessings will only come from uncomfortable states. ~Rev. Jacob A. Brooks, New Life Ministry of Silsbee

 

 

People are resilient. After all, every person born has recovered from nine months on life support. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

 

 

But while to propose to be a better man is a piece of unscientific cant, to have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered. And such I think I have become. ~Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1905

 

 

I am the strength that was born of my weakness. I am the steadfastness that came out of my wavering. I am the joy of living that was born of my despair. I am the poise that was born of my great unrest. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912

 

 

A new wound makes all the old ones ache again. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

 

 

When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile. ~Author unknown

 

 

Don't be an easy-doing child, do hard things too. Remember a blacksmith never got a big muscle by hammering an inch nail, but by swinging a heavy hammer while beating out an iron bar. Sometimes we must run hard roads, through briers, over sharp stones, and any which way. ~Sunday School Helper, 1897  [a little altered —tg]

 

 

It is the hard things that make men. It is hard things that bring mental discipline and mental muscle. It is what brings out manhood, to really conquer something. ~Proceedings of the Dedication of the New Buildings of the Central High School, Philadelphia, 1902  [a little altered —tg]

 

 

When life gives you lemons, please, just don't squirt them in other people's eyes. ~J. Andrew Helt

 

 

I think it's good to get knocked around a little bit sometimes. I think it's good to rise from the fire... It's a good opportunity to rejuvenate your motivation, to see that hill and go climb it. ~k.d. lang, 1997

 

 

The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt. ~Max Lerner, 1957

 

 

Each negative experience hardens us a little more to life. Some of us are tough as concrete — but we are the happiest who are cracked, so that flowers can still grow through. ~Terri Guillemets

 

 

Don't trouble trouble 'til trouble troubles you. ~African-American proverb

 

 

There are sufferings that have lost their memory and do not remember why they are suffering. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

 

 

Had life been more abundant, I could not know the deep craving that comes from the sparsity of it. Had it been more verdant, I could not know the desert's pain. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912

 

 

Sooner or later, you will need to make friends with Disappointment. ~Dr. SunWolf, @WordWhispers, tweet, 2016, professorsunwolf.com

 

 

It went in a Sorrow, but through the alchemy of Self, it came out a Song. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912

 

 

I remembered Tucker telling me that luck was no lady; luck was a mean drunk who didn't know when to stop punching. ~Abby Geni, The Wildlands, 2018

 

 

Invite your melancholy outside for a walk. Or read it a poem. Or bake it chocolate chip cookies. ~Dr. SunWolf, professorsunwolf.com

 

 

Break bread with your darkness. Put down the stone in your fist. Write a poem on it, instead. ~Dr. SunWolf, professorsunwolf.com

 

 

Lost dreams may help you find new dreams. ~J Charles White, @connect1492, January 2013 winner of The Quote Garden create your own quote contest on Twitter, @quotegarden

 

 

Don't allow your wounds to turn you into a person you are not. ~Author unknown

 

 

If the thunder is not loud, the peasant forgets to cross himself. ~Russian proverb

 

 

There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts. ~Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, 1977

 

 

If we don't face and overcome unsettling events in life, we are ruled by them. ~Bones, "The Babe in the Bar," original airdate 2010 November 18th, spoken by the character Dr. Sweets, writing credits K.Rosenthal, H.Hanson, K.Reichs, D.Lopata, and M.Peterson

 

 

Pain is sometimes the cost of a meaningful existence. I can handle that. ~Jeb Dickerson, @JebDickerson

 

 

At times, challenges hit with the force of a roaring, rushing waterfall. The true test, however, is whether you can put your arms up and enjoy the feel of the water. ~Aviva Kaufman

 

 

Us to teach that love and grace

In darkest days may blossom,

And that a tender bloom of hope

May shine in sorrow's bosom.

~J.J. Britton (1832–1913), "A White Hyacinth"

 

 

The frost which kills the harvest of a year, saves the harvests of a century, by destroying the weevil or the locust. Wars, fires, plagues, break up immovable routine... There is a tendency in things to right themselves... The sharpest evils are bent into that periodicity which makes the errors of planets, and the fevers and distempers of men, self-limiting. Nature is upheld by antagonism. Passions, resistance, danger, are educators. We acquire the strength we have overcome. Without war, no soldier; without enemies, no hero... All the glory of character is in affronting the horrors of depravity, to draw thence new nobilities of power... ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Considerations By the Way," The Conduct of Life, 1860

 

 

The rays of happiness, like those of light, are colorless when unbroken. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kavanagh, 1849

 

 

God uses suffering as a whetstone, to make men sharp with. ~Henry Ward Beecher

 

 

The fact that life is a grind is what sharpens many a man's wits. ~Boston Transcript, 1923

 

 

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. ~Miyazawa Kenji, unverified

 

 

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival. ~Winston Churchill

 

 

Who said a dilemma had only two horns? He must have been fooling around with little dilemmas before they were of age. A real dilemma has between eight and ten pairs of horns and can kill you as far as you can see it and vice versa. ~Ernest Hemingway, as quoted in A. E. Hotchner, The Good Life According To Hemingway, 2008

 

 

ADVERSITY  A bottomless lake, surrounded by near-sighted friends. ~Charles Wayland Towne, The Foolish Dictionary, Executed by Gideon Wurdz, Master of Pholly, Doctor of Loquacious Lunacy, etc., 1904

 

 

Perhaps this was rock bottom. But then, she had thought that before, and there was always a little farther to fall. ~Abby Geni, The Wildlands, 2018

 

 

Things are tough all over

But I've got good news

When you get down to nothin'

You've got nothin' to lose

Anyway, rock bottom

Is good solid ground

And a dead-end street

Is just a place to turn around

~J. R. Cobb & Buddy Buie, "Rock Bottom," performed by Wynonna Judd, 1994 ♫

 

 

The bitterest things are sweets misunderstood... ~Mark Van Doren, "The Bitterest Things," 1948

 

 

[L]ook evil in the face; walk up to it, and you will find it less than you imagined, and often you will not find it at all; for it will recede as you advance. ~Sydney Smith, "A Little Moral Advice: A Fragment on the Cultivation and Improvement of the Animal Spirits"

 

 

Sometimes when Fortune scowls most spitefully, she is preparing her most dazzling gifts. ~Winston Churchill, 1931

 

 

Men have made them gods of love,

      Sun-gods, givers of the rain,

      Deities of hill and grove:

      I have made a god of Pain.

Of my god I know this much,

      And singing I repeat,

      Though there's anguish in his touch,

      Yet his soul within is sweet.

~Æ (George William Russell), "Pain," Homeward Songs by the Way, 1894

 

 

We won't break, Mary. We look very small, but the reed can carry weight. ~Emily Dickinson, 1862

 

 

And when things start to happen,

don't worry. Don't stew.

Just go right along.

You'll start happening too...

~Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!, 1990

 

 

What is to give light must endure burning. ~Anton Wildgans (1881–1932), quoted by Viktor Frankl

 

 

Defeat may serve as well as victory

To shake the soul and let the glory out.

When the great oak is straining in the wind,

The boughs drink in a new beauty, and the trunk

Sends down a deeper root on the windward side.

Only the soul that knows the mighty grief

Can know the mighty rapture. Sorrows come

To stretch out spaces in the heart for joy.

~Edwin Markham, "Victory in Defeat," c. 1908

 

 

So do the Winds, and Thunders cleanse the Air:

So working Seas settle and purge the Wine;

So lop't and pruned Trees do flourish fair,

So doth the Fire the drossy Gold refine.

~John Davies, "Nosce Teipsum," 1599

 

 

If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. ~Latin proverb

 

 

Misfortune is a Wind that, rising higher,

Blows out the Match but fans the Steady Fire.

~Arthur Guiterman, "Of Indomitability," A Poet's Proverbs, 1924

 

 

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, Memoirs of a Geisha, 1997, translated by Jakob Haarhuis

 

 

When life takes the wind out of your sails, it is to test you at the oars. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

 

 

When you forget to take the sail at all, then the wind is constantly in your favour both ways. But there! this world is only a probation, and man was born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. ~Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), 1889

 

 

Say not that this or that thing came to thwart you; it only came to test you. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "Wind-Wafted Wild Flowers," in The Open Court, August 1903

 

 

Let the stormy sky be your prayer, raining faith down upon you. ~Terri Guillemets

 

 

Small skill is gained by those who cling to Ease;

The Able Sailor hails from Stormy Seas.

~Arthur Guiterman, "Of Sailors," A Poet's Proverbs, 1924

 

 

      Edith. It seems in the deep waters of social life, as in those of the sea, we should not be able to get the beautiful things they contained, if it was not that storms threw them on our shores. We can discern much, as you say, when they are clear, but their greatest treasures are only given up after agitation. The waters must be troubled before they heal.

      Lyulph. I am afraid our waters are as restless as the ocean, so they should at least be always healing. Human progression is a strange thing, such oscillations backwards and forwards, it is often most difficult to see that any advance is made....

      Edith. Antagonism and division seem ruling spirits of our age. We struggle for union and seek the wells of contentment, and find only the waters of strife; but let us have comfort and remember that when the waters are troubled it is only that they may heal. ~Henry James Slack (1818–1896), The Ministry of the Beautiful, "Conversation XIII: A Rocky Lane in Summer," 1850

 

 

Storms question the weak and the strong alike — and the strong may not always have answers but they always have resolve. ~Terri Guillemets

 

 

Past and to come seems best; things present, worst. ~William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II, c.1597  [I, 3, Archbishop Scroop]

 

 

The man who makes the best of opportunities is apt to get the best of obstacles. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, as reprinted in Poor Richard Jr's Almanack, George Horace Lorimer, editor, 1906

 

 

During the darkest indigo midnight, yet will countless stars blossom. ~Dr. SunWolf, professorsunwolf.com

 

 

Allow yourself a moment of grief when life's misfortunes visit you. However, do not spend your days building a monument in honor of them. ~Dodinsky

 

 

Trouble will meet you half-way and will gladly accompany you the rest of the distance. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, 1903, George Horace Lorimer, editor

 

 

Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward. ~Author unknown

 

 

Notice the disappointing things and marvelous things at the same time, because they dance with one another. ~Dr. SunWolf, professorsunwolf.com

 

 

To-day the heart feels fraught with woe,

And keen-pronged thorns lie in the way,

But as the Spring's breath melts the snow,

E'en so our sorrows go, and gay

And peaceful soars each troubled mind—

Each sombre cloud is silver lined...

~Kimball Chase Tapley, "To-day and To-morrow," 1800s

 

 

We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on. ~J.K. Rowling, "A Sluggish Memory," Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2005  [Albus Dumbledore —tg]

 

 

Life leaves bootprints all over us — we just have to keep getting back up. ~Terri Guillemets

 

 

Your heart has been sore wounded too. Dear Light, love shall cherish you, till you again look on life with happy eyes. ~Byron Caldwell Smith (1849–1877), letter to Kate Stephens

 

 

Perhaps, it takes a touch of pain, or sorrow or of woe,

To make man truly grateful for his blessings here below!

Perhaps, it takes a few hard knocks to open up his eyes

To facts pertaining to God's laws and make him realize

That while he has his being here, much sorrow he must meet;

And, if he's wise, he'll bravely take the bitter with the sweet!

Perhaps, Twill make him stronger if he overcomes each woe;

Perhaps, Twill make him kinder, and will help his Soul to grow!

~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham (1880–1971), "Perhaps"

 

 

Everything was in ruins. But her soul was still intact. ~Naomi Ragen, The Tenth Song, 2010

 

 

No man ever understood the true meaning of life, or caught a glimpse of heaven, until repeated misfortunes had dispelled the flattering dream of a selfish imagination, and cured the blindness of his spiritual nature. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882

 

 

Your enemies are the best reflection of your own character: a strong man rarely has weak foes. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, 1909, George Horace Lorimer, editor

 

 

We paint our lives with peace and passion, with love and laughter — to cover the pain and scars, the bitterness and tears. ~Terri Guillemets, "War paint," 2009

 

 

Strange how we decorate pain. ~Margaret Atwood, "Oh," Morning in the Burned House, 1995

 

 

...for even our misfortunes are a part of our belongings... ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Night Flight, 1931, translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert, 1932

 

 

My own life has been much more than a fairy tale. I've had my share of difficult moments, but it's like there was always a light at the end of the tunnel. Whatever difficulties I've gone through, I've always gotten a prize at the end. ~Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993)

 

 

Misfortunes never come singly because people always multiply them. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, 1903, George Horace Lorimer, editor

 

 

The great doctors all got their education off dirt pavements and poverty — not marble floors and foundations. ~Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962)

 

 

It's not easy taking my problems one at a time when they refuse to get in line. ~Ashleigh Brilliant, as quoted in The Reader's Digest, 1989

 

 

"The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never, never forget!"

"You will, though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it."

~Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, 1872

 

 

The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them. ~Bernard Baruch

 

 

...and we take everything heartily and naturally in the right way, — for even mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle. ~James Russell Lowell

 

 

Soul connections are often formed through the currents of adversity. ~Terri Guillemets

 

 

Human suffering, while it is asleep, is shapeless. If it is wakened it takes the form of the waker. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

 

 

When a man tries to drown troubles on his way home, he always finds them sitting and grinning on his doorstep like drenched cats. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, 1906, George Horace Lorimer, editor

 

 

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. ~Author unknown

 

 

Beautiful rainbows and life water

come from a dark rain cloud —

What gifts can you bring the world

even in your times of darkness?

~Terri Guillemets

 

 

Better bread with water than cake with trouble. ~Russian proverb

 

 

When suffering comes, we yearn for some sign from God, forgetting we have just had one. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

 

 

Sometimes the best way to fight a personal demon is to turn your back on it and let it wither away. Often you need to face it head-on and slay it with every ounce of your being. And occasionally it will do to draw a halo on it and convert it to an angel or a friend. ~Terri Guillemets, "Don't dis any advantages," 2006

 

 

And these vicissitudes tell best in youth;

For when they happen at a riper age,

People are apt to blame the Fates, forsooth,

And wonder Providence is not more sage.

Adversity is the first path to truth:

He who hath proved war, storm, or woman's rage,

Whether his winters be eighteen or eighty,

Hath won the experience which is deem'd so weighty.

~Lord Byron, Don Juan, 1819

 

 

Would you touch a nettle without being stung by it? take hold of it stoutly. Do the same to other annoyances, and hardly will any thing annoy you. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827

 

 

I cursed my misfortune, — and it remained one. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912

 

 

Pain gives you the memory of things you shouldn't do. ~Craig D. Slovak

 

 

Even when life isn't good on the outside, you have an option to make it good from the inside out. ~Terri Guillemets

 

 

Some days, we're just looking for a soft place to land. ~Dr. SunWolf, professorsunwolf.com

 

 

Life is rough. If it were smooth, we'd slide right through it without noticing. A bumpy ride teaches us gratitude and perspective. ~Terri Guillemets

 

 

I do not ask you to help me, but I would appreciate it if you did not hinder me. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912

 

 

Many a man can overcome a difficulty in the path of another, which he could not surmount were it in his own. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882

 

 

Sometimes our hearts get tangled

And our souls a little off-kilter

Friends and family can set us right

And help guide us back to the light.

~Terri Guillemets

 

 

Can one deal with realities that are not shaken with sobs and wet with tears? ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: VIII," A Soul's Faring, 1921

 

 

Adversity enhances this tale we call life. ~Terri Guillemets, "Live, laugh, & cry," 2005

 

 

Like a plant that starts up in showers and sunshine and does not know which has best helped it to grow, it is difficult to say whether the hard things or the pleasant things did me most good. ~Lucy Larcom, A New England Girlhood, 1889

 

 

And I learned there are troubles

Of more than one kind.

Some come from ahead

And some come from behind...

So I said to myself, "Now, I'll just have to start

To be twice as careful and be twice as smart.

I'll watch out for trouble in front and back sections

By aiming my eyeballs in different directions."

...Then NEW troubles came!

From above!

And below!... I had so many troubles, I just couldn't think!...

~Dr. Seuss, I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew, 1965

 

 

I know I'll have troubles.

I'll, maybe, get stung.

I'll always have troubles.

I'll, maybe, get bit...

But I've bought a big bat.

I'm all ready, you see.

Now my troubles are going

To have troubles with me!

~Dr. Seuss, I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew, 1965

 

 

In most cases, misfortune is an acquired habit. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Seven Seventy Seven Sensations, 1897

 

 

Bygone troubles are good to tell. ~Yiddish proverb

 

 

This was freedom. Losing all hope was freedom. ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, 1996

 

 

"It's only after you've lost everything," Tyler says, "that you're free to do anything." ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, 1996

 

 

The cold is a good counselor, but it is cold. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

 

 

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places. ~Ernest Hemingway, as quoted in A. E. Hotchner, The Good Life According To Hemingway, 2008

 

 

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. ~Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1893  [Dumby —tg]

 

 

Sir: there are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart's desire. The other is to get it. ~Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy, 1903  [Mendoza —tg]

 

 

Sadness flowers to the next renewing joy. ~Terri Guillemets

 

 

Alas, my Lord God, how small matters trouble me! every petty occurrence is ready to rob me of my peace; so as, methinks, I am like some little cock-boat in a rough sea, which every billow topples up and down, and threats to sink.... Lord, work my heart to so firm a settledness upon thee, that it may never be shaken; no, not with the violent gusts of temptation, much less with the easy gales of secular mis-accidents. Even when I am hardest pressed in the multitude of the sorrows of my heart, let thy comforts refresh my soul: but for these slight crosses, oh teach me to despise them; as not worthy of my notice, much less of my vexation. Let my heart be taken up with thee; and then, what care I, whether the world smile or frown? ~Joseph Hall (1574–1656), Bishop of Norwich, The Breathings of the Devout Soul (XXXIV), 1644

 

 

That was rough.... Thing to do now is try and forget it.... I guess I don't quite mean that. It's not a thing you can forget. Maybe not even a thing you want to forget.... Life's like that sometimes... Now and then for no good reason a man can figure out, life will just haul off and knock him flat, slam him agin' the ground so hard it seems like all his insides is busted. But it's not all like that. A lot of it's mighty fine, and you can't afford to waste the good part frettin' about the bad. That makes it all bad.... Sure, I know — sayin' it's one thing and feelin' it's another. But I'll tell you a trick that's sometimes a big help. When you start lookin' around for something good to take the place of the bad, as a general rule you can find it. ~From the movie Old Yeller

 

 

Hardship is best sailed with a heart ship. ~Terri Guillemets, "Knocking hard," 1989

 

 

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity,

For wise men say it is the wisest course.

~William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III, c.1590  [III, 1, Henry VI]

 

 

If God asks that you bend, bend and do not complain. He is making you more flexible, and for this be thankful. ~Terri Guillemets

 

 

O God, whate'er befall, spare me that supreme calamity — let no after-bitterness settle down with me. Misfortune is not mine until that hour. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Prayer, 1904

 

 

Let your joy scream across the pain. ~Terri Guillemets