And these vicissitudes come best in youth;
For when they happen at a riper age,
People are read more

And these vicissitudes come best in youth;
For when they happen at a riper age,
People are apt to blame the Fates, forsooth,
And wonder Providence is not more sage.
Adversity is the first path to truth:
He who hath proved war, storm, or woman's rage,
Whether his winters be eighteen or eighty,
Has won experience which is deem'd so weighty.

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

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

In all distresses of our friends
We first consult our private ends;
While Nature, kindly bent to read more

In all distresses of our friends
We first consult our private ends;
While Nature, kindly bent to ease us,
Points out some circumstance to please us.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can
stand prosperity, there are a hundred read more

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can
stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be read more

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

His overthrow heaped happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found read more

His overthrow heaped happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little.

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

We survive on adversity and perish in ease and comfort.

We survive on adversity and perish in ease and comfort.