The tougher the times, the more clarity you gain about the difference between what really matters and what you only pretend to care about. (Po Bronson)

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it. (Horace)

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it. (Rabindranath Tagore)

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. (Unknown)

Since the house is on fire, let us warm ourselves. (Italian Proverb)

It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another. (Nelson Mendela)

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Every situation, properly perceived, becomes an opportunity. (Helen Schucman)

Heroism... is endurance for one moment more. (George Kennan)

Until you get dissatisfied, you won't do anything to really move your life to another level. Dissatisfaction is a gem. If you're totally satisfied, you're going to get comfortable. And then your life begins to deteriorate. (Anthony Robbins 1960-, American Author, Speaker)

An alternate spelling of "emergency" is "emerge and see." (Dean Fraser)

Nothing can ever stop the Plan of Salvation from coming to its fulfillment. It is only a question of time - and from our view the difference of time, called forth by the free will of man, is rather unsubstantial. It is calculated into the overall Plan of Salvation that man is bound to create negative circumstances by his limited view. But the very result of this limited view - the negative circumstances - are most instrumental in waking man to the truth. Sometimes he cannot wake up and even wish for truth, unless he has gone through the hardship he himself created by his ignorance or distortion of truth. In order to be happy, you have first to be in truth. But you cannot be in truth unless you know you are not, and then desire to search for it. This knowledge that you are not in truth, and the consequent desire to search for it, cannot come to man unless he is left to taste the result of his ignorance. The same applies to the individual. All this is taken into consideration in the Plan of Salvation. (Eva Pierrakos) - www.pathwork.org

Significant events enter my life as a test from my higher self. Life's adversities are asking me to "sign-if-i-can't." Well I ain't signing nothing; I'll solve what is troubling me and grow on from the experience, knowing that each challenge that I conquer makes me stronger than before. (Dean Fraser)

Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory. (Gen. George S. Patton)

Face a challenge and find joy in the capacity to meet it. (Ayn Rand)

Every time you meet a situation, though you think at the moment it is an impossibility and you go through the tortures of the damned; once you have met it and lived through it you find that forever after you are freer than you were before. (Eleanor Roosevelt)

Above all, challenge yourself. You may well surprise yourself at what strengths you have, what you can accomplish. (Cecile M. Springer)

Impossibilities are merely things which we have not yet learned. (Charles W. Chesnutt)

In 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. (Robert Collier)

Of all the virtues we can learn, no trait is more useful, more essential for survival, and more likely to improve the quality of life than the ability to transform adversity into an enjoyable challenge. (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

Don't bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me. (Charles F. Kettering)

To fly we have to have resistance. (Maya Lin)

Problems are chances to learn something new, and grow a little more. (Dean Fraser)

When any calamity has been suffered, the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped. (Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784 British Author)

Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself. (Samuel Johnson)

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, under prosperous conditions, may have remained dormant. (Horace)

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. (Moliere)

It is not the greatness of our trouble but the littleness of our spirit that makes us complain. (Jeremy Taylor)

All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you. (Walt Disney)

A man of character finds a special attractiveness in difficulty, since it is only by coming to grips with difficulty that he can realize his potentialities. (Charles de Gaulle)

Challenges can be stepping stones or stumbling blocks. It's just a matter of how you view them. (Unknown)

Remember, it's not the problem that's the problem. It's your attitude about the problem, that's the problem. (Unknown)

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, or a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. (Alfred D. Souza)

If you don't have something to overcome, you'll be overcome by complacency. (Randall D. Worley)

Prosperity doth best discover vice but adversity doth best discover virtue. (Francis Bacon)

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity. (Lou Holtz)

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind. (Leonardo da Vinci)

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. (Helen Keller)

The game of life is not so much in holding a good hand as playing a poor hand well. (H. T. Leslie)

Successful people are simply people who learn to solve their problems... they are not people without problems. (Unknown)

You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks. (Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889-1951 Austrian Philosopher)

When you close your eyes to tragedy, you close your eyes to your greatness. (Stephen Vizinczey, 1933 Hungarian Novelist Critic)

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. (Helen Keller, 1880-1968 American Blind/Deaf Author Lecturer Amorist)

A problem is your chance to do your best. (Duke Ellington, American jazz musician)

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems. (John W. Gardner, 1912 American Educator Social Activist)

The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it. (Alan Saporta)

The best way out is always through. (Helen Keller, 1880-1968 American Blind/Deaf Author Lecturer Amorist)

The sculptor will chip away all the unnecessary material to set free the angel from the stone. Likewise, nature will chip and pound us remorselessly to bring out all of our possibilities. She will strip us of wealth, humble our pride, humiliate our ambition, let us down from the ladder of fame, will discipline us in a thousand different ways, if she can develop a little character - everything must give way to that. Wealth is nothing, position is nothing, fame is nothing, manhood is everything. (Orison Swett Marden, 1850-1924 American Author Founder of Success Magazine)

Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind the stronger the trees. (J. Willard Marriott, American Businessman Founder of Marriott Hotels)

Although men are accused of not knowing their own weakness, yet perhaps few know their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of. (Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745 Anglo-Irish Satirist)

I could choose to see this situation as a setback or as a starting point. I chose to begin life again. (Warren Mitchell, 1926 British Actor)

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. (Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963 British Author)

As simple as it sounds, we all must try to be the best person we can: by making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we've been given. (Mary Lou Retton, American Olympic Gymnast Speaker)

Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy. (Saadi)

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882 American Poet Essayist)

The best way out of a difficulty is through it. (Robert Frost, 1875-1963 American Poet)

Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never truly grow. (Ronald E. Osborn)

Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes. (Buddha, 568-488 BC Founder of Buddhism)

Defeat has its lessons as well as victory. (Patrick Buchanan, American Statesman)

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict. (William Ellery Channing, 1780-1842 American Unitarian Minister Author)

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. (Albert Einstein, 1879-1955 German-born American Physicist)

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss. (Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882 American Poet Essayist)

Without the bitter the sweet is not as sweet. (Unknown)

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so noticeably pleasant. If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would never be so welcome. (Anne Bradstreet, 1612-1672 British Puritan Poet)

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from poor judgment. (Cousin Woodman)

True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat. (Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821 French General Emperor)

Misfortunes allow us to more fully appreciate what fortune is. (Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661 British Clergyman Author)

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune. (William James, 1842-1910 American Psychologist Professor Author)

The mere fact that you have obstacles to overcome is in your favor... (Robert Collier, American Writer Publisher)

Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats. Yet each struggle, each defeat, sharpens your skills and strengths, your courage and your endurance, your ability and your confidence and thus each obstacle is a comrade-in-arms forcing you to become better... (Og Mandino, 1923-1996 American Motivational Author Speaker)

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it. (Moliere, 1622-1673 French Playwright)

One of the most difficult things everyone has to learn is that for your entire life you must keep fighting and adjusting if you hope to survive. No matter who you are or what your position is, you must keep fighting for whatever it is you desire to achieve. (George Allen, American Football Coach)

In this age, which believes that there is a shortcut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way, in the long run, makes your life easier. (Henry Miller, 1891-1980 American Author)

If you have a lemon, make lemonade. (Howard Gossage)

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1834-1892 British Baptist Preacher)

Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness - a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster-children into strength and athletic proportion. (William C. Bryant, 1794-1878 American Poet Newspaper Editor)

The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid. (Marcus Aurelius, 121-80 AD Roman Emperor Philosopher)

Adversity is the first path to your truth. (Lord Byron, 1788-1824 British Poet)

No pressure, no diamonds. (Mary Case)

Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you. (Gesser)

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. (Napoleon Hill, 1883-1970 American Speaker Motivational Writer Think and Grow Rich)

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity. (Lou Holtz, 1937 American Football Coach)

As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it. (Horace, BC 65-8 Italian Poet)

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant. (Horace, BC 65-8 Italian Poet)

Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down, so you can build yourself up to be all that you were intended to be. (Charles 'Tremendous' Jones, American Motivational Speaker Author)

He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity. (Ben Jonson, 1573-1637 British Dramatist Poet)