Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.
HoraceRead
Adversity is wont to reveal genius, prosperity to hide it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Challenges often showcase our true abilities, while success can obscure them.
This quote by Horace emphasizes that difficult circumstances can bring out the best in individuals, often revealing their hidden talents and strength. Conversely, when times are easy and prosperous, people may become complacent, and their potential may go unnoticed or unrecognized.
Themes
AdversityGeniusProsperityRevealHide
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a motivational speech about overcoming challenges.
More from Horace
All quotes βNow is the time for drinking; now the time to beat the earth with unfettered foot.
HoraceRead
Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.
HoraceRead
It is of no consequence of what parents a man is born, as long as he be a man of merit.
HoraceRead
It is not the rich man you should properly call happy, _x000D_ but him who knows how to use with wisdom the blessings of the gods, _x000D_ to endure hard poverty, and who fears dishonor worse than death, _x000D_ and is not afraid to die for cherished friends or fatherland.
HoraceRead
Few cross the river of time and are able to reach non-being. Most of them run up and down only on this side of the river. But those who when they know the law follow the path of the law, they shall reach the other shore and go beyond the realm of death.
HoraceRead
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Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible of the blight on him, and resigning himself to let it eat him away.
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Do not bring me your successes; they weaken me. Bring me your problems; they strengthen me.
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I wonder what becomes of lost opportunities? Perhaps our guardian angel gathers them up as we drop them, and will give them back to us in the beautiful sometime when we have grown wiser, and learned how to use them rightly.
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Whatever we focus on is bound to expand. Where we see the negative, we call forth more negative. And where we see the positive, we call forth more positive. Having loved and lost, I now love more passionately. Having won and lost, I now win more soberly. Having tasted the bitter, I now savor the sweet.
Marianne WilliamsonRead