Quotes
At a certain depth of distress, the poor, in their stupor, groan no longer over evil, and are no longer thankful for good.
p. 798
Happy, even in anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and of grief! He who has not seen the things of this world, and the hearts of men by this double light, has seen nothing, and know nothing of the truth.
p. 727
Great grief is a divine and terrible radiance which transfigures the wretched.
For whoso lives, as I, in many woes,
How can it be but death shall bring him gain?
p. 445
The happiest is he who suffers least; the most miserable is he who enjoys least.
Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.
Virtue is like precious odors — most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed.
It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner of the Stoics), that "The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired."
Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.
The same is the case of men, that rise after calamities and misfortunes. For they are as men fallen out with the times; and think other men's harms, a redemption of their own sufferings.
... only he who has been bitten by a serpent knows the suffering of one who has been bitten by a serpent.
p. 213
O poor mortals, how ye make this earth bitter for each other.
