"We must make friends in prosperity if we would have their help in adversity." ~ Aesop's Fables
Prosperity is not without many fears and disasters; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. ~ Francis Bacon
There will have to be rigid and iron discipline before we achieve anything great and enduring, and that discipline will not come by mere academic argument and appeal to reason and logic. Discipline is learnt in the school of adversity. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety. ~ Jack Nicklaus
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Gold is tried in fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity. ~ Seneca
There is in every woman’s heart a spark of heavenly fires, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity. ~ Washington Irving
There is no education like adversity. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
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
Adversity not only draws people together but brings forth that beautiful inward friendship, just as the cold winter forms ice-figures on the window panes which the warmth of the sun effaces. ~ Søren Kierkegaard
One likes people much better when they're battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph. ~ Virginia Woolf, A Writer's Diary, 1954