Quotes About Adversity

Noteworthy is the fact that this 'other self' seldom exerts its influence or makes itself known excepting at times of unusual emergency, when men are forced, through adversity and temporary defeat

The measure of a man may be taken very accurately by the extent to which he adapts himself to his environment and makes it his business to accept responsibility for every adversity with which he meets, whether the adversity grows out of a cause within his control or not.

Do not expect troubles as they have a tendency not to disappoint.

East to the West, but he, too turned defeat into victory

Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning.

Do not wait; the time will never be just right. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

Antes de o sucesso chegar à vida de alguém, essa pessoa certamente encontrará muitas derrotas temporárias e talvez algum fracasso. Quando sobrevém a derrota, a coisa mais fácil e mais lógica a fazer é desistir. É exatamente o que faz a maioria das pessoas.

Abraham Lincoln was a failure at everything he tried, until he was well past the age of forty. He was a Mr Nobody from Nowhere, until a great experience came into his life, aroused the sleeping genius within his heart and brain, and gave the world one of its really great men.

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every

profits by their own mistakes and, through observation, by the mistakes of others. In every failure and mistake may be found the seed of an equivalent success.

The "depression" was a blessing in disguise. It reduced the whole world to a new starting- point that gives every one a new opportunity.

Las decepciones amorosas, generalmente tienen el efecto de conducir a los hombres a la bebida, y a las mujeres a la ruina; y esto, porque la mayoría de la gente nunca aprende el arte de transmutar sus emociones más fuertes en sueños de carácter constructivo.

If you want to get an idea of a friend's temperament, ethics, and personal elegance, you need to look at him under the tests of severe circumstances, not under the regular rosy glow of daily life.

Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (one of the doer-Stoic authors), "fire feeds on obstacles.

The excess energy released from overreaction to setbacks is what innovates!

Too much success is the enemy, too much failure is demoralizing.

Don't complain too loud about wrongs done you; you may give ideas to your less imaginative enemies.

How do you innovate? First, try to get in trouble. I mean serious, but not terminal, trouble. I hold—it is beyond speculation, rather a conviction—that innovation and sophistication spark from initial situations of necessity, in ways that go far beyond the satisfaction of such necessity (from the unintended side effects of, say, an initial invention or attempt at invention).

for Mother Nature, opinions and predictions don't count; surviving is what matters.

Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire. Likewise with randomness, uncertainty, chaos: you want to use them, not hide from them. You want to be the fire and wish for the wind. This summarizes this author's nonmeek attitude to randomness and uncertainty.

In spite of what is studied in business schools concerning "economies of scale," size hurts you at times of stress; it is not a good idea to be large during difficult times.

Robust is when you care more about the few who like your work than the multitude who dislike it (artists); fragile when you care more about the few who dislike your work than the multitude who like it (politicians).

Organisms need, to use the metaphor of Marcus Aurelius, to turn obstacles into fuel—just as fire does.

in Ovid, difficulty is what wakes up the genius (ingenium mala saepe movent)