“Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”
The Book of Job, 1611 · Job 5:7, King James Version
Chapter 1
On Adversity
“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.”
The Book of Proverbs, 1611 · Proverbs 24:10, King James Version
“Thou deemest Fortune to have changed towards thee; thou mistakest. Such ever were her ways, ever such her nature.”
Boethius, c. 524 AD · Roman philosopher, writing in prison while awaiting execution
“It is circumstances which show what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man.”
Epictetus, c. 108 AD · Stoic teacher, born enslaved in Phrygia
“That which is a hindrance is made a furtherance to an act, and that which is an obstacle on the road helps us on this road.”
Marcus Aurelius, c. 170 AD · Roman emperor, writing to himself on campaign
“Whether touched by happiness or sorrow, wise people never appear elated or depressed.”
The Dhammapada, c. 100 BC · verse 83, from the sayings of the Buddha
“Our strength grows out of our weakness. The indignation which arms itself with secret forces does not awaken until we are pricked and stung and sorely assailed.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841 · American essayist, in the essay Compensation
“If there is no struggle there is no progress.”
Frederick Douglass, 1857 · born enslaved, abolitionist and orator, speaking at Canandaigua, New York
“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
Booker T. Washington, 1901 · born enslaved in Virginia, founder of Tuskegee Institute
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”
Helen Keller, 1903 · deaf and blind since infancy, writer and campaigner, age 23
People who have lived through some hardship cope better with later trouble than people who have faced none at all. A life with no adversity in it leaves no practice at bearing any.
Mark D. Seery and colleagues, 2010 · study of 2,398 adults tracked over several years, University at Buffalo
Many who live through the worst events report real gains afterward: closer relationships, a changed sense of what matters, more trust in their own strength. The gain does not cancel the pain.
Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun, 1996 · psychologists who named and measured post-traumatic growth
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