Difficulty, my brethren, is the nurse of greatness a harsh nurse, who roughly rocks her foster children into strength and athletic proportion.
A diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.
Adversity breaks the inferior man's will but only bends the superior man's spirit. Outward influence is denied the great man, who accordingly uses words sparingly but retains his central position.
The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizzare which seems inherent in them.
Strong men greet war, tempest, hard times. They wish, as Pindar said, to tread the floors of hell, with necessities as hard as iron.
Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.
To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.
Common and vulgar people ascribe all ills that they feel to others; people of little wisdom ascribe to themselves; people of much wisdom, to no one.
Human misery must somewhere have a stop: there is no wind that always blows a storm.
Aromatic plants bestow no spicy fragrance while they grow; but crush'd or trodden to the ground, diffuse their balmy sweets around.
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
Prosperity is not without many fears and distaste; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.
Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue.
No man is more unhappy than the one who is never in adversity; the greatest affliction of life is never to be afflicted.
As riches and favor forsake a man, we discover him to be a fool, but nobody could find it out in his prosperity.
Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen.
Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.
Do you think that you shall enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed before you?
To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to kn
The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.
The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day. (Matthew 6:34)
One's own escape from troubles makes one glad; but bringing friends to trouble is hard grief.
It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and no one else has made