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.
- Sir Walter Scott
Do you think that you shall enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed before you?
- Quran
To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to kn
- Jean J. Roussea
Men often bear little grievances with less courage than they do large misfortun
- Aesop
A drowning man is not troubled by rain.
- Persian Proverbs
With man, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man.
- Pliny the Elder
Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen.
- James Russell Lowell
Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but sober; not to make us sorry but wise.
- Harriet Ward Beecher
In great straits and when hope is small, the boldest counsels are the safest.
- Titus Livius
The nearer the dawn the darker the night.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Adversity makes men,and prosperity makes monsters.
- Victor Hugo
As riches and favor forsake a man, we discover him to be a fool, but nobody could find it out in his prosperity.
- Jean La Bruyere
Prosperity doth best discover vice; but adversity doth best discover virtue.
- Francis Bacon
No man is more unhappy than the one who is never in adversity; the greatest affliction of life is never to be afflicted.
- Victor Hugo
Adversity borrows its sharpest sting from our impatience.
- Bishop Horne
Prosperity is not without many fears and distaste; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.
- Francis Bacon
When an elephant is in trouble even a frog will kick him.
- Hindu Proverbs
Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.
- Horace
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
- Horace
Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.
- William Hazlitt
Greater dooms win greater destinies.
- Heraclitus
A time of disarray is also a moment of opportunity.
- Frederick Ferre