“Eagles weren’t given wings just to walk everywhere . . . and you weren’t born with resilience and a beautiful mind just to have an easy life.” — Phil Van Treuren
Adversity — also known as “facing challenges” or unexpected change — is a common theme touched on by Stoic quotes, because it’s an experience that’s so common across humanity. We all face adversity in our lives, and learning how to deal with it appropriately is an important part of being a successful, happy person.
When it comes to adversity, Stoicism generally advises that it isn’t good or bad, it just “is.” Like many things, we can turn it into an advantage if we look at challenges as a possibility to learn, grow and strengthen ourselves.
Learning how to use adversity in our lives as an advantage takes a long time to learn, and simply reading the Stoic quotes below shouldn’t be the extent of your exploration into this topic. True students of Stoicism looks at adversity not just as an unavoidable challenge to be accepted as part of life, but also as a chance to better themselves.
Stoic Quotes on Challenges & Adversity from Marcus Aurelius
“Ask, ‘Why is this so unbearable? Why can’t I endure it?’ You’ll be embarrassed to answer.”
“If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now.”
“A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.”
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
“Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it—turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself—so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal.”
Stoic Quotes on Challenges & Adversity from Epictetus
“The true man is revealed in difficult times. So when trouble comes, think of yourself as a wrestler whom God, like a trainer, has paired with a tough young buck. For what purpose? To turn you into Olympic-class material.”
“Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own inner resources. The trails we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths. Prudent people look beyond the incident itself and seek to form the habit of putting it to good use. On the occasion of an accidental event, don’t just react in a haphazard fashion: remember to turn inward and ask what resources you have for dealing with it. Dig deeply. You possess strengths you might not realize you have. Find the right one. Use it.”
Stoic Quotes on Challenges & Adversity from Seneca
“To bear trials with a calm mind robs misfortune of its strength and burden.”
“No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself.”
“I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent— no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.”
“For we are naturally disposed to admire more than anything else the man who shows fortitude in adversity.”