Adversity Quotes

Quotes About Adversity

ADVERSITY.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
_As You Like It, Act_ i. _Sc_. 3. SHAKESPEARE.

Calamity is man's true touchstone.
_Four Plays in One: The Triumph of Honor, Sc_. 1.
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged
To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days,
On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues.
_Paradise Lost, Bk. VII_. MILTON.

Tho' losses and crosses
Be lessons right severe,
There's wit there, ye'll get there,
Ye'll find nae otherwhere.
_Epistle to Davie_. R. BURNS.

By adversity are wrought
The greatest work of admiration,
And all the fair examples of renown
Out of distress and misery are grown.
_On the Earl of Southampton_. S. DANIEL.

Aromatic plants bestow
No spicy fragrance while they grow;
But crushed or trodden to the ground,
Diffuse their balmy sweets around.
_The Captivity, Act_ i. O. GOLDSMITH.

The Good are better made by Ill,
As odors crushed are sweeter still.
_Jacqueline_. S. ROGERS.

Daughter of Jove, relentless power,
Thou tamer of the human breast.
Whose iron scourge and torturing hour
The bad affright, afflict the best!
_Hymn to Adversity_. T. GRAY.

'T is better to be lowly born,
And range with humble livers in content.
Than to be perked up in a glistering grief,
And wear a golden sorrow.
_King Henry VIII., Act_ ii. _Sc_. 3. SHAKESPEARE.

As if Misfortune made the throne her seat,
And none could be unhappy but the great.
_The Fair Penitent: Prologue_. N. ROWE.

None think the great unhappy, but the great.
_Love of Fame, Satire I_. DR. E. YOUNG.

My pride fell with my fortunes.
_As You Like It, Act i. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

We have seen better days.
_Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

If ever you have looked on better days;
If ever been where bells have knolled to church.
_As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7_. SHAKESPEARE.

O, who can hold a fire in his hand
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite
By bare imagination of a feast?
Or wallow naked in December snow,
By thinking on fantastic Summer's heat?
O, no! the apprehension of the good
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.
_King Richard II., Act i. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

Adversity.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
37
SHAKS.: As You Like It, Act ii., Sc. 1.

A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity,
We bid be quiet, when we hear it cry;
But were we burthen'd with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain.
38
SHAKS.: Com. of Errors, Act ii., Sc. 1.

I am not now in fortune's power:
He that is down can fall no lower.
39
BUTLER: Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto iii., Line 877.

For of fortunes sharpe adversite,
The worst kind of infortune is this,—
A man that hath been is prosperite,
And it remember whan it passed is.
40
CHAUCER: Troilus and Creseide, Bk. iii., Line 1625.


A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man.
_King Lear, Act iii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

Eating the bitter bread of banishment.
_King Richard II., Act iii. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
_Merchant of Venice, Act i. Sc. 8_. SHAKESPEARE.

Lord of himself,--that heritage of woe!
_Lara, Canto I_. LORD BYRON.

Lord of thy presence, and no land beside.
_King John, Act i. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.

Heaven is not always angry when he strikes,
But most chastises those whom most he likes.
_Verses to his Friend under Affliction_. J. POMFRET.

As sunshine, broken in the rill,
Though turned astray, is sunshine still.
_Fire Worshippers_. T. MOORE.

On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.
_Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.

Cheered up himself with ends of verse,
And sayings of philosophers.
_Hudibras, Pt. I. Canto III_. S. BUTLER.

O life! thou art a galling load,
Along a rough, a weary road,
To wretches such as I!
_Despondency_. R. BURNS.

A wretched soul, bruised with adversity.
_Comedy of Errors, Act ii. Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.

Affliction's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve, how exquisite the bliss!
_A Winter Night_. R. BURNS.

Henceforth I'll bear
Affliction till it do cry out itself,
Enough, enough, and die.
_King Lear, Act iv. Sc_. 6. SHAKESPEARE.

On me, on me
Time and change can heap no more!
The painful past with blighting grief
Hath left my heart a withered leaf.
Time and change can do no more.
_Dirge_. R.H. HORNE.

I wish thy lot, now bad, still worse, my friend,
For when at worst, they say, things always mend.
_To a Friend in Distress_. DR. J. OWEN.

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
Is left this vault to brag of.
_Macbeth, Act ii. Sc_. 8. SHAKESPEARE.

Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward
To what they were before.
_Macbeth, Act iv. Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.

I am not now in fortune's power;
He that is down can fall no lower.
_Hudibras, Pt. I. Canto III_. S. BUTLER.

The worst is not
So long as we can say, _This is the worst.
King Lear, Act iv. Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.