Top 200 Adversity Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life’s story will develop.”

— Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Also featured in: Attitude Quotes, Short Motivational Quotes, Positive Life Quotes, Wednesday Motivational Quotes, Friday Inspirational Quotes

2. “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

Also featured in: Courage Quotes, Life Quotes, Failure Quotes, Positive Motivational Quotes

3. “What ought one to say then as each hardship comes? I was practicing for this, I was training for this.”

— Epictetus

Also featured in: Mental Strength Quotes, Obstacles Quotes, Challenges Quotes

4. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

— J.K. Rowling

Also featured in: Motivational Quotes, Quotes About Strength, Failure Quotes, Positive Motivational Quotes, Emotional Quotes

5. “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

— Marcus Aurelius

Also featured in: Action Quotes, Wisdom Quotes, Mindset Quotes, Obstacles Quotes

6. “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”

— Epictetus

Also featured in: Attitude Quotes, Life Lessons Quotes, Perspective Quotes, Wisdom Quotes, Philosophical Quotes

7. “When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Change Quotes, Interesting Quotes, Life Lessons Quotes, Quality Quotes, Wise Quotes

8. “Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Attitude Quotes, Positive Motivational Quotes, Life Lessons Quotes, Choices Quotes

9. “Don’t quit. You’re already in pain. You’re already hurt. Get a reward from it!”

— Eric Thomas

Also featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Hard Work Quotes, Short Motivational Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Success

10. “There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. There is no such thing as a negative experience, only opportunities to grow, learn and advance along the road of self-mastery. From struggle comes strength. Even pain can be a wonderful teacher.”

— Robin S. Sharma

Also featured in: Motivational Quotes, Deep Quotes About Life, Positive Inspirational Quotes, Positivity Quotes

11. “You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you.”

— Brian Tracy

Also featured in: Success Quotes, Confidence Quotes, Attitude Quotes, Inspirational Life Quotes

12. “Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.”

— Joseph Campbell

13. “There is nothing in life so difficult that it cannot be overcome. This faith can move mountains. It can change people. It can change the world. You can survive all the great storms in your life.”

— Norman Vincent Peale

Also featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Self-Esteem Quotes, Never Give Up Quotes, Optimism Quotes, Obstacles Quotes

14. “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

— Nelson Mandela

Also featured in: Courage Quotes, Leadership Quotes, Quotes About Strength, Interesting Quotes

15. “At the end of pain is SUCCESS!”

— Eric Thomas

Also featured in: Hustle Quotes, Self-Empowerment Quotes, Giving Up Quotes, Fitness Quotes

16. “Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Attitude Quotes, Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Empowerment Quotes, Choices Quotes

17. “Let difficulty transform you. And it will. In my experience, we just need help in learning how not to run away.”

— Pema Chödrön

Also featured in: Transformation Quotes, Buddhist Quotes, Helping Quotes, Healing Quotes

18. “There is a saying in Tibetan, ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.’ No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.”

— Dalai Lama XIV

Also featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Mental Strength Quotes, Wellness Wednesday Quotes, Quotes About Hope

19. “You’re going to go through tough times – that’s life. But I say, ‘Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.’ See the positive in negative events.”

— Joel Osteen

Also featured in: Blessing Quotes, Sunday Morning Quotes, Faith Quotes, Being Strong Quotes

20. “You will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles.”

— Helen Keller

Also featured in: Giving Up Quotes, Victory Quotes, Being Strong Quotes, Joy Quotes

21. “I found out that the things that hurt us the most can become the fuel and the catalyst that propel us toward our destiny. It will either make you bitter or it will make you better.”

— T.D. Jakes

Also featured in: Christian Motivational Quotes, Healing Quotes, Don't Give Up Quotes, Destiny Quotes

22. “If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an ineradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Life is Hard Quotes, Sad Quotes, Existentialism Quotes, Meaning of Life Quotes, Suffering Quotes

23. “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

— Napoleon Hill

Also featured in: Failure Quotes, Positive Inspirational Quotes, Encouragement Quotes, Personal Development Quotes

24. “That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Also featured in: Courage Quotes, Perseverance Quotes, Quotes About Strength, Failure Quotes

25. “Hard times build determination and inner strength. Through them we can also come to appreciate the uselessness of anger.”

— Dalai Lama XIV

Also featured in: Deep Quotes About Life, Buddhist Quotes, Peace Quotes, Being Strong Quotes

26. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. Please remember that your difficulties do not define you. They simply strengthen your ability to overcome.”

— Maya Angelou

Also featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Women, Never Give Up Quotes, Wellness Quotes

27. “In times of crisis, people reach for meaning. Meaning is strength. Our survival may depend on our seeking and finding it.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Recovery Quotes, Mental Strength Quotes, Resilience Quotes

28. “In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Meaning of Life Quotes, Suffering Quotes

29. “You can take away my wife, you can take away my children, you can strip me of my clothes and my freedom, but there is one thing no person can ever take away from me – and that is my freedom to choose how I will react to what happens to me!”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Human Nature Quotes, Mental Strength Quotes, Existentialism Quotes, Freedom Quotes

30. “There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.”

— Nelson Mandela

Also featured in: Freedom Quotes, Hero Quotes

31. “For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Meaning Quotes, Mental Strength Quotes, Resilience Quotes, Achievement Quotes

32. “Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.”

— Charles H. Spurgeon

Also featured in: Human Nature Quotes, Life is Hard Quotes, Teaching Quotes

33. “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty. I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Also featured in: Success Quotes, Persistence Quotes, Hard Work Quotes, Live Life Quotes

34. “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

— Albert Camus

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Quotes About Strength, Positive Life Quotes, Meaningful Quotes, Philosophical Quotes

35. “No matter how many times you get knocked down, keep getting back up. God sees your resolve. He sees your determination. And when you do everything you can do, that’s when God will step in and do what you can’t do.”

— Joel Osteen

Also featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Christian Motivational Quotes, Never Give Up Quotes, Sunday Morning Quotes, Sunday Quotes

36. “If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering.”

— Viktor E. Frankl

Also featured in: Psychology Quotes, Life is Hard Quotes, Existentialism Quotes, Suffering Quotes

37. “There is the mud, and there is the lotus that grows out of the mud. We need the mud in order to make the lotus.”

— Nhat Hanh

Also featured in: Awakening Quotes, Life is Hard Quotes, Mindfulness Quotes

38. “It is necessary to be strong in the face of death, because death is intrinsic to life. It is for this reason that I tell my students: aim to be the person at your father’s funeral that everyone, in their grief and misery, can rely on. There’s a worthy and noble ambition: strength in the face of adversity.”

— Jordan B. Peterson

Also featured in: Mental Strength Quotes, Stay Strong Quotes

39. “It is worth remembering that the time of greatest gain in terms of wisdom and inner strength is often that of greatest difficulty.”

— Dalai Lama XIV

Also featured in: Life is Hard Quotes, Obstacles Quotes, Stay Strong Quotes

40. “I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

— J.K. Rowling

Also featured in: Failure Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Women, Recovery Quotes, Survival Quotes

41. “Don’t read success stories, you will only get a message. Read failure stories, you will get some ideas to get success.”

— Abdul Kalam

Also featured in: Failure Quotes, Quotes About Ideas, Quotes About Stories

42. “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”

— Chuck Palahniuk

Also featured in: Short Quotes About Life, Loss Quotes, Fight Club Quotes

43. “Difficulties in your life do not come to destroy you, but to help you realise your hidden potential and power, let difficulties know that you too are difficult.”

— Abdul Kalam

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Success, Empowering Quotes, Inspirational Life Quotes

44. “Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.”

— Lance Armstrong

Also featured in: Courage Quotes, Persistence Quotes, Quotes About Strength, Hard Work Quotes, Short Inspiring Quotes

45. “Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”

— Bruce Lee

Also featured in: Deep Quotes About Life, Motivational Quotes About Life, Resilience Quotes, Adaptability Quotes

46. “Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.”

— Mike Tyson

Also featured in: Athlete Quotes, Quotes About Money, Fighting Quotes, Sports Quotes

47. “Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties.”

— C. S. Lewis

Also featured in: Short Quotes About Life, Christian Motivational Quotes, Spiritual Growth Quotes, Friday Inspirational Quotes

48. “Choose not to be harmed and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed and you haven’t been.”

— Marcus Aurelius

Also featured in: Perspective Quotes, Deep Quotes, Mental Strength Quotes, Mind Quotes

49. “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

— James Baldwin

Also featured in: Change Quotes, Deep Quotes About Life, Changing the World Quotes, Justice Quotes

50. “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.”

— H. G. Wells

Also featured in: Failure Quotes, Positive Life Quotes, Moving On Quotes, Quotes About Trying