Tap the page, move to the top or bottom edge, swipe down, or press Tab to reveal reading controls. Use the arrow keys or swipe sideways to turn pages.
Take heart, I say; do not be dismayed. “Hope sustains farmers.” “Whoever sows in tears will reap in joy,” Psalm 126:7.
If fortune torments me, Hope consoles me.
Hope refreshes as much as misery weighs down. Hard beginnings often have happy outcomes, and something that has never happened yet may happen at last. “A fulfilled desire delights the soul,” Proverbs 13:19.
The hour you do not expect will arrive as a welcome surprise.
It lets me enjoy at last the joys I have long wished for; Welcome is the hour that comes when hope has passed.
A gloomy morning may turn into a fine afternoon:
When the cloud is driven away, a bright day often follows.
“Deferred hope makes the heart faint, but when desire is fulfilled it is a tree of life,” Proverbs 13:12. “It is most sweet to obtain one’s wish.” Many people are wretched and miserable at first, but afterwards very happy. It often happens as Machiavelli relates of Cosimo de’ Medici, that fortunate and renowned citizen of Europe: all his youth was full of anxiety, danger and misery until forty years had passed; then suddenly the sun of his honour broke out as through a cloud. Hunyadi was brought from prison, and Henry the Third of Portugal from a poor monastery, to be crowned kings.
Much can happen between the cup and the edge of the lips.
Many things happen beyond all hope and expectation; who knows what may happen? “The suns of all our days have not yet set,” as Philip said. Not all the suns have set; a day may come to make amends for everything. “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me in,” Psalm 27:10. “Wait patiently for the Lord and hope in him,” Psalm 37:7. “Be strong, hope and trust in the Lord, and he will comfort you and give you your heart’s desire,” Psalm 27:14.
Keep hoping, and preserve yourselves for better times.
Do not fret because you are poor, despised, or not as well off at present as you would wish; because you do not receive the respect your birth, position or worth deserves. Or, what eats away at you doubly, because you were once happy, honoured and rich, but are now afflicted and poor, an object of scorn, a burden to the world, wearisome to yourself and others, having lost everything:
“It is misery to have been happy,” and, as Boethius calls it, “the unhappiest kind of misfortune.” Thinking of his former fortune and present misfortunes made Timon half mad with melancholy. This alone makes many miserable people discontented. I admit that having been happy is a great misery—the very essence of unhappiness, having once been honoured and rich—yet it can readily be endured.
Freedom from anxiety follows, and, for a discerning man, a far better condition. Losing your goods and money is no loss: you have lost them; otherwise they would have ruined you. If your money is gone, you are that much lighter. As Saint Jerome urges the monk Rusticus to leave everything and follow Christ: gold and silver are too heavy for someone seeking heaven to carry.
Or let us throw into the nearest sea Gems and jewels, and useless gold, The material of the greatest evil, If we truly repent of our sins.
Zeno the philosopher lost all his goods in a shipwreck; he could welcome it, for Fortune had done him a good turn. “She can take my wealth from me, but not my mind.” Ever afterwards he defied her: she could not rob someone who had nothing to lose. He could despise more than others could possess or desire.
Alexander sent a hundred talents of gold as a gift to Phocion of Athens because he had heard that he was a good man. But Phocion sent the talents back with the reply, “Allow me to remain a good man in future.” Let me remain good; leave me as I am.
I ask for no gold for myself, no payment.
Crates of Thebes threw his money into the sea of his own accord: “Away, coins! I will drown you, so that you do not drown me.” I would rather drown you than have you drown me. Can Stoics and Epicureans despise wealth like this, while we Christians cannot?
It was “a manly and splendid utterance,” a noble speech by Cotta in Sallust: “Many miseries have befallen me at home and in wars abroad. With God’s help I have endured some, repelled others, and overcome them by my own courage. My undertakings never lacked spirit, nor my purposes effort; prosperity or adversity could never change my character.”
A wise man’s mind, as Seneca maintains, is like the region of the universe above the moon, always serene. Let whatever can come, come; let whatever may happen, happen: “Set against it a spirit unbroken and unconquered. In adversity show yourself spirited and brave.” (Horace, Odes 2.11.)
Hope and patience are two supreme remedies for everything, the surest places of rest, the softest cushions to lean on in adversity:
Hard though it is, patience makes lighter Whatever we are not permitted to change.
If it cannot be helped or put right, make the best of it. “Whoever accommodates himself to necessity is wise”: a wise man adapts himself to the times. Treat all such unavoidable events as you would a game of backgammon.
Human life is like a game of dice: If the throw you most need does not fall, Use skill to improve what chance has thrown.
If you cannot throw what you wish, play your throw as well as you can. Everything, says Epictetus, has two handles: one by which it can be held, the other by which it cannot. We may choose what to take and what to leave. His commentator Simplicius has illustrated all this with many examples. It lies within our power, as the saying goes, to make or mar ourselves.