ADVERSITY

ADVERSITY.

Adversity has ever been considered as the date in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, particularly being free from flatterers.—Johnson.

Prosperity is too apt to prevent us from examining our conduct, but as adversity leads us to think properly of our state, it is most beneficial to us.—Johnson.

Sweet are the uses of adversity, which, like the toad, though ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.—Shakespeare.

The truly great and good, in affliction, bear a countenance more princely than they arc wont; for it is the temper of the highest hearts, lite the palm-tree, to strive most upwards when it is most burdened.—Sir P. Sidney.

Half the ills we hoard within our hearts are ills because we hoard them.—Barry Cornwall.

It is often better to have a great deal of harm happen to one than a little; a great deal may rouse you to remove what a little will only accustom you to endure.—Grevilte.

How full of briers is this working-day world! -Shakespeare.


Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor.—Bacon.

Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.—Plutarch.

The willow which bends to the tempest often escapes better than the oak, which resists it; and so, m great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.— Walter Scott.

Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not.—Fielding.

Men think God is destroying them because he is tuning them. The viofinist screws up the lasy till the tense cord sounds the concert pitch; but it is not to break it, but to use it tunefully, that he stretches the string upon the musical ndL—Beecher.

Adversity is the first path to truth.—Byron.

Our dependence upon God ought to be so entire and absolute that we should never think it necessary, in any kind of distress, to have recourse to* human consolations.—Thomas a Kempis

Adversity borrows its sharpest sting from our impatience.—Bishop Home.

He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatness of soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported with the latter.—Fielding.

Heaven oft in mercy smites, even when the blow severest is.—Joanna Baillie.

The brightest crowns that are worn in heaven have been tried, and smelted, and polished, and glorified through the furnace of tribulation.—Chapin.

Clouds arc the veil behind which the face of day coquettishly hides itself, to enhance its beauty.—Richter.

By adversity are wrought the greatest works of admiration, and all the fair examples of renown, out of distress and misery are grown.—Daniel.

One month in the school of affliction will teach thec more than the great precepts of Aristotle in seven years ; for thou canst never judge rightly of human affairs, unless thou hast first felt tlie blows, and found out the deceits of fortune.— Fuller.

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

The gods in bounty work up storms about us, that give mankind occasion to exert their hidden strength, and throw out into practice virtues that shun the day, and lie concealed in the smooth seasons and the calms of life.—Addison.

Affliction is the good man's shining scene ; prosperity conceals his brightest rays; as night to stars, woe lustre gives to man.—Young.

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.— BiUe.

In adversity be spirited and firm, and with equal prudence lessen your sail when filled with a too fortunate gale of prosperity.—Horace.

There is strength deep-bedded in our hearts, of which we reck but little till the shafts of heaven have pierced its fragile dwelling. Must not earth be rent before her gems are found?—Mrs. Hemans.

Through danger safety comes — through trouble rest.—John Marston.

Affliction is the wholesome soil of virtue, where patience, honor, sweet humanity, calm fortitude, take root and strongly flourish.—Mallet.

Much dearer be the things which come through hard distress.—Spenser.

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity is a frreater. Possession pampers the mind ; privation trains and strengthens it.—Hazlitt.

He that has no cross deserves no crown.—Quarles.

Genuine morality is preserved only in the ichool of adversity, and a state of continuous prosperity may easily prove a quicksand to virtue.—Schiller.

In the wounds our sufferings plough immortal love sows sovereign seed.—Massey.

The winter's frost must rend the burr of the nut before the fruit is seen. So adversity tempers the human heart, to discover its real worth. -Balzac.

Know how sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong.—Longfellow.

Mr. Bcttenham said that virtuous men were like some herbs and spices, that give not out their sweet smell till they be broken or crushed. -Bacon.

Those who have suffered much are like those who know many languages; they have learned to understand and bo understood by all.—Madame Suietchine.

A noble heart, like the sun, showeth its greatest countenance in its lowest estate.—

Sir P. Sidney.

There are minerals called hydrophanous, which are not transparent till they are immersed in water, when they become so ; as the hydrophane, a variety of opal. So it is with many a Christian. Till the floods of adversity have been poured over him, his character appears marred and clouded by selfishness and worldly influences. But trials clear away the obscurity, and give distinctness and beauty to his piety.—Professor Hitchcock.

Let me embrace these sour adversities, for wjse men say it is the wisest course.—Shakespeare.

The most affluent may be stripped of all, and find his worldly comforts, like so many withered leaves, dropping from him.—Sterne.

He that has never known adversity is but half acquainted with others, or with himself.—Cotton.