Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves, as he loves us better too. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This conflict with difficulty makes us acquainted with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Opposition is true friendship.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Given a sufficient number of people and an adequate amount of time you can create insurmountable opposition to the most inconsequential idea.
—Unknown
The wise man always throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember, the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.
—Alexander Hamilton (c.1757–1804) American Federalist Politician, Statesman
Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has. Out of pain and problems have come the sweetest songs, and the most gripping stories.
—Billy Graham (1918–91) American Baptist Religious Leader
To overcome difficulties is to experience the full delight of existence.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) American Business Executive
The coldest bodies warm with opposition; the hardest sparkle in collision.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
Leaders exhibit two essential characteristics, the willingness to confront adversity and a clearly articulated future preference.
—Martin O’Malley (b.1963) American Politician, Lawyer
When you struggle, that’s when you realize what you’re made of, and that’s when you realize what the people around you can do. You learn who you’d want to take with you to a war, and who you’d only want to take to lunch.
—Chamique Holdsclaw (b.1977) American Basketball Player
Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them… they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
Politics is the conspiracy of the unproductive but organized against the productive but unorganized.
—Joseph Sobran (1946–2010) American Journalist, Columnist
The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.—Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
—Epicurus (c.341–270 BCE) Greek Philosopher
It is not the victory that makes the joy of noble hearts, but the combat.
—Charles Forbes Rene de Montalembert (1810–70) French Historian, Politician
One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.
—Robert F. Kennedy (1925–68) American Politician, Lawyer
Adversity weakens the weak and strengthens the strong.
—Anonymous
I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race.
—Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American Educationist
Don’t be afraid of opposition. Remember, a kite rises against—not with—the wind.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846–1916) American Essayist, Editor
Prosperity discovers vice, adversity discovers virtue.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
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 … or quit. Each rebuff is an opportunity to move forward; turn away from them, avoid them, and you throw away your future.
—Og Mandino (1923–96) American Self-Help Author
In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
Have you learned lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who rejected you, and braced themselves against you, or disputed the passage with you?
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist
To oppose something is to maintain it…You must go somewhere else; you must have another goal; then you walk a different road.
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b.1929) American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer
I respect only those who resist me, but I cannot tolerate them.
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
Opposition is not necessarily enmity; it is merely misused and made an occasion for enmity.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
But most of us are apt to settle within ourselves that the man who blocks our way is odious, and not to mind causing him a little of the disgust which his personality excites in ourselves.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Nature is upheld by antagonism.—Passions, resistance, danger, are educators. We acquire the strength we have overcome.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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