Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
—Abraham Lincoln
Prosperity tries the fortunate, adversity the great.
—Rose Kennedy
Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist: it reduces him to his fighting weight.
—Josh Billings
By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean.
—Mark Twain
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
—Anne Bradstreet
By courage I repel adversity.
(Adversa Virtute Repello)
—Unknown
He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.
—Ben Jonson
Be more prompt to go to a friend in adversity than in prosperity.
—Chilo
Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it.
—Cicero
Adversity is the touchstone of friendship.
—French Proverb
Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not.
—Henry Fielding
He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatness of the soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported without the latter.
—Henry Fielding
In adversity remember to keep an even mind.
—Horace
You will never truly know yourself or the strength of your relationships until both have been tested by adversity.
—J. K. Rowling
In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.
—John Churton Collins