This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long imprisonment: 'It is not adversity that kills, but the impatience with which we bear adversity.
Adversity | Impatience | Sentiment |
Jean Paul, born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, aka Jean Paul Richter
If adversity purifies men, why not nations?
"Failing forward" is the ability to get back up after you've been knocked down, learn from your mistake, and move forward in a better direction. Don't buy into the notion that mistakes can somehow be avoided. They can't be. Failure is not a one-time event; it's how you deal with life along the way. Until you breathe your last breath, you're still in the process, and there is still time to turn things around for the better. You are the only person who can label what you do a failure. Failure is subjective. Don't allow the fire of adversity to make you a skeptic. Allow it to purify you. Generally speaking, there are two kinds of learning: experience, which is gained from your own mistakes, and wisdom, which is learned from the mistakes of others. Seek advice, but make sure it's from someone who has successfully handled mistakes or adversities.
Ability | Adversity | Better | Failure | Life | Life | Time | Failure | Learn |
John Steinbeck, fully John Ernst Steinbeck
If everything is coming your way, you are probably in the wrong lane. Adversity and defeat are more conducive to spiritual growth than prosperity and victory.
Adversity | Defeat | Growth | Prosperity | Wrong |
How to Live a Hundred Years Happily 1. Do not be on the lookout for ill health. 2. Keep usefully at work. 3. Have a hobby. 4. Learn to be satisfied. 5. Keep on liking people. 6. Meet adversity valiantly. 7. Meet the little problems in life with decision. 8. Above all, maintain a good sense of humor, best done by saying something pleasant every time you get a chance. 9. Live and make the present hour pleasant and cheerful. Keep your mind out of the past, and keep it out of the future.
Adversity | Good | Life | Life | Little | Mind | Present | Problems | Sense | Time | Learn |
Religious rights, and religious liberty, are things of inestimable value. For these have many of our ancestors suffered and died; and shall we, in the sunshine of prosperity, desert that glorious cause, from which no storms of adversity or persecution could make them swerve? Let us consider if as a duty of the first rank with respect to moral obligation, to transmit to our posterity, and provide, as far as we can, for transmitting, unimpaired, to the latest generations, that generous zeal for religion and liberty, which makes the memory of our forefathers so truly illustrious.
Adversity | Duty | Memory | Rank | Religion | Respect | Zeal | Respect |
Livy, formally Titus Livius, aka Titus Livy NULL
We survive on adversity and perish in ease and comfort.
Lucretius, fully Titus Lucretius Carus NULL
So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.
Mencius, born Meng Ke or Ko NULL
We survive on adversity and perish in ease and comfort.
Those who are patient in adversity and forgive wrongs are the doers of excellence.
In the hour of adversity be not without hope For crystal rain falls from black clouds.
Tacitus, fully Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus NULL
Many who seem to be struggling with adversity are happy; many, amid great affluence, are utterly miserable.
Tacitus, fully Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus NULL
We see many who are struggling against adversity who are happy, and more although abounding in wealth, who are wretched.
This is the law of prosperity. When apparent adversity comes, be not cast down by it, but make the best of it, and always look forward for better things, for conditions more prosperous.
You should not allow yourself the luxuries of discouragement of despair. Bounce back immediately, and welcome the adversity because it produces harder thinking and harder drive to get to the objective.
In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time.
If adversity hath killed his thousands, prosperity hath killed his ten thousands; therefore adversity is to be preferred. The one deceives, the other instructs; the one miserably happy, the other happily miserable.
Adversity | Prosperity |