Chapter 4: A Parkinson’s Reading Companion on Adversity

“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.” C.S. Lewis

“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.” Joseph Campbell 

Précis: The students from my undergraduate course, “Biology of Blood Diseases”, submitted quotes about these words: hope, courage, journey, persistence, positivity, strength, adversity, mindfulness, and life (for further details click here). This blog post is Chapter 4 including all of their quotes about ‘adversity’ [click here to read Chapter 1 (hope); click here to read Chapter 2 (life); click here to read Chapter 3 (strength)].

Adversity and Parkinson’s: Merriam-Webster defines adversity as  a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune; adversity certainly comes with Parkinson’s. Most people do not have Parkinson’s yet we typically all have had some kind of adversity in our lives. How we deal with adversity and how we recover from adversity can certainly help define our lives. May these quotes on adversity enable you to withstand the daily annoyances from Parkinson’s and may they help others in the midst of adversity.

Adversity:  I am pleased to present Chapter 4 about adversity with my co-authors: Angle, Hannah; Arthur, Kallie; Artov, Michael; Bagley, Kendall; Batista, Kayla; Blaylock, Allison; Byrd, Emory; Cabell, Grant; Catalano, Michael; Clark, Kendall; Cossaart, Kristen; Culpepper, Houston; Das, Snigdha; Davis, Eric; Defazio, Stephanie; Doudnikoff, Alex; Dua, Shawn; Evans, Jessica; Evick, Andrew; Farooque, Tazeen; Ford, Kelsey; German, Zachary; Gouveia, Katie; Hall, Nikita; Isler, Victoria; Kirkley, Joel; Koutleva, Elitza; Laudun, Katie; Le, Kevin; Little, Sarah; Mackey, Josselyn; Macon, Briana; Maddox, Kaity; Marquino, Grace; Mattox, Daniel; Mcknight, Kyle; Mcmanus, Brenna; Mcshane, Sarah; Monkiewicz, Caroline; Nguyen, Michelle; Nguyen, Teresa; Olinger, Emily; Patel, Darshan; Patel, Dilesh; Patel, Jenny; Perez, Abby; Peters, Daniel; Quirin, Julia; Rawlins, Shelby; Raynor, Nathan; Renn, Matt; Scott, Alicia; Sherry, Alex; Shin, Christine; Stanton, Kate; Story, Charlotte; Swango, Summer; Szyperski, Caroline; Windley, Taylor; Wooley, Caleb; Xu, Alice; Yang, Michelle.

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” -Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture 

“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.” -Herman Melville’s Moby Dick

“Success is never so interesting as struggle- not even to the successful” Willa Cather

“Adversity introduces a man to himself” Albert Einstein

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” Maya Angelou

“Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.” Aristotle

“If the road is easy, you’re likely going the wrong way.”  Terry Goodkind

 “The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.” The Emperor Mulan

“It’s not the load that breaks you down. It’s the way you carry it.” C.S. Lewis

“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.” Sigmund Freud

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it.” Helen Keller

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” Martin Luther King Jr.

“Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” The Old Astronomer and His Pupil by Sarah William

“Life is tough my darling, but so are you.” Stephanie Bennett-Henry

“Everyone goes through adversity in life, but what matters is how you learn from it.” Lou Holtz

“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine.” “The Imitation Game”

“The pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow. For every challenge encountered there is opportunity for growth.”  Unknown

“If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person. It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.”  William J. Clinton 

“When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters – one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.” John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” Kahlil Gibran

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” Martin Luther King Jr.

 “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela

“Everyone wants happiness; no one wants pain. But you can’t make a rainbow without a little rain.” Anonymous

“Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.” Victor Hugo

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door” Milton Berle

“Never to suffer would never to have been blessed.” Edgar Allan Poe

“It’s always darkest before the dawn.” Thomas Fuller

 “The next time you face difficulty, or even if you just need a reminder of who you are, go outside on a clear night, look up at the stars, and think of how great it is that of all the places in the universe, you are right where you are. And as you’re looking up, put your hand on your heart and know that no one else, *no one*, has your particular purpose or opportunities.” (from a dear friend, Randy Mullis)

“The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all.” Mulan

“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” Horace

“Whatever you fight, you strengthen, and what you resist, persists.” Eckhart Tolle

“Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.” William Shakespeare

“Adversity is the diamond-dust that the universe uses to polish its brightest stars.” Thomas Carlyle

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” Nelson Mandela

“Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life’s problems.” Sadness, Inside Out

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” – Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

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