Of Adversity
Essays (1625)
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 578.
“Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
Epigrams, Book iv, Epistle 5. Compare: "Prosperum ac felix scelus/ Virtus vocatur" ("Successful and fortunate crime/ is called virtue"), Seneca, Herc. Furens, ii. 250.
“There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious.”
Of Truth
Essays (1625)
Context: There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious. And therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge? Saith he, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood, and breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal, to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men; it being foretold, that when Christ cometh, he shall not find faith upon the earth.
CXXIV, Epitaph on Elizabeth, Lady H—, lines 3-6
The Works of Ben Jonson, First Folio (1616), Epigrams
“The snow covers many a dunghill, so doth prosperity many a rotten heart.”
page 87
Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, 1652
Of Adversity
Essays (1625)
Context: The virtue of prosperity, is temperance; the virtue of adversity, is fortitude; which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New; which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation of God's favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
“Prosperity doth bewitch men, seeming clear;
But seas do laugh, show white, when rocks are near.”
Act V, scene vi.
The White Devil (1612)
“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered.”
Fortune of the Republic (1878)
“As Angelo discovered in Measure for Measure, nothing corrupts like virtue.”
"A needle for your pornograph" (22 July 1971), p. 67
The Madwoman's Underclothes (1986)
“Prosperity is the best protector of principle.”
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. II ; as cited in Mark Twain at your Fingertips https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0486473198: A Book of Quotations, ed. Caroline Thomas Hornsberger, Courier Corp. (2009), p. 385
Following the Equator (1897)
