Neither do uninterrupted success and prosperity qualify men for usefulness and happiness.

The storms of adversity, like those of the ocean, rouse the faculties, and excite the invention, prudence, skill and fortitude of the voyager.

The martyrs of ancient times, in bracing their minds to outward calamities, acquired a loftiness of purpose and a moral heroism worth a lifetime of softness and security.

A man upon whom continuous sunshine falls is like the earth in August: he becomes parched and dry and hard and close-grained.

Men have drawn from adversity the elements of greatness.