For in all adversity of fortune the worst sort of misery is to have been happy.
Interpretation
True misery lies in losing happiness after having experienced it.
This quote suggests that the deepest form of suffering comes from the understanding of what happiness feels like, especially after experiencing it and then losing it due to unfavorable circumstances. It highlights the contrast between joy and sorrow, emphasizing how past happiness can intensify feelings of misery when one faces adversity.
In practice
During a motivational speech about resilience and overcoming hardship.
And no renown can render you well-known:_x000D_ For if you think that fame can lengthen life _x000D_ By mortal famousness immortalized,_x000D_ The day will come that takes your fame as well,_x000D_ And there a second death for you awaits.
Man is so constituted that he then only excels other things when he knows himself.
He who has calmly reconciled his life to fate, and set proud death beneath his feet, can look fortune in the face, unbending both to good and bad; his countenance unconquered.
Every man must be content with that glory which he may have at home.
I who once wrote songs with keen delight am now by sorrow driven to take up melancholy measures. Wounded Muses tell me what I must write, and elegiac verses bathe my face with real tears. Not even terror could drive from me these faithful companions of my long journey. Poetry, which was once the glory of my happy and flourishing youth, is still my comfort in this misery of my old age.
Contemplate the extent and stability of the heavens, and then at last cease to admire worthless things.
Be like the bluebird who never is blue, For he knows from his upbringing what singing can do
It takes a certain ingenuous faith - but I have it - to believe that people who read and reflect more likely than not come to judge things with liberality and truth.
Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.
Reading - the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay.
Self-conceit may lead to self destruction.
We must give up the vain idea of trying to please everybody. That is impossible, and the attempt is a mere waste of time. We must be content to walk in Christ's steps, and let the world say what it likes.
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