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.
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.