“Prosperity proves men to be fortunate, while it is adversity which makes them great.”
Secunda felices, adversa magnos probent.
Pliny the Younger (61–113) Roman writer
XXXI.
Panegyricus
"On the Conversations of Lords," New Monthly Magazine (April 1826)
Men and Manners: Sketches and Essays (1852)
“Prosperity proves men to be fortunate, while it is adversity which makes them great.”
Secunda felices, adversa magnos probent.
Pliny the Younger (61–113) Roman writer
XXXI.
Panegyricus
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
1900s, Address at Providence (1901)
Context: We are passing through a period of great commercial prosperity, and such a period is as sure as adversity itself to bring mutterings of discontent. At a time when most men prosper somewhat some men always prosper greatly; and it is as true now as when the tower of Siloam fell upon all alike, that good fortune does not come solely to the just, nor bad fortune solely to the unjust. When the weather is good for crops it is also good for weeds.
David Hare (1947) British writer
Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare Guesses at Truth (London: Macmillan, ([1827-48] 1867) pp. 209-10.
Misattributed
“Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.”
Publilio Siro Latin writer
Maxim 872
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
“Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.”
Francis Bacon book Essays
Of Adversity
Essays (1625)
“It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.”
Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers
Aristotle, 9.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 5: The Peripatetics
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
(Often shortened to "can't stand prosperity" as an unknown quote).
1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Man of Letters
“Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy