Quote Atlassourced quotes & context
Source identified
Fortune has often in the past got the upper hand of you, and yet you have not surrendered, but have leaped up and stood your ground still more eagerly.
Read & copy the quotation
“Fortune has often in the past got the upper hand of you, and yet you have not surrendered, but have leaped up and stood your ground still more eagerly.”

Seneca

Download image (JPG)

Source
Moral letters to Lucilius
Date
c. 65
English wording
Richard M. Gummere — Translator · from Latin
Meaning

Meaning of “Fortune has often in the past got the…”

Past recovery is evidence of present capacity: being struck down by fortune is different from surrendering to it.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13, section 3, Richard M. Gummere translation.

Primary / edition source ↗

Customize your imageTen designs · Square or portrait · Preview and share
Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

Acceptance Quotes About Reality, Limits & ChangeCalmCourage Quotes About Acting Despite FearFailureGriefHard TimesHealingHope Quotes About Possibility in Uncertain TimesInspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & PossibilityMotivation For LifeMotivational Quotes for Action, Effort & PersistenceMoving OnNever Give UpOptimism Quotes About Constructive ExpectationPatiencePeacePerseverance Quotes About Sustained EffortPositive Quotes About a Constructive OutlookPresent MomentResilience Quotes About Recovery & AdaptationSadStoicStrengthFateStruggle
Related quotations

Continue through nearby ideas

Source identified
Have this thought ever present with thee, when thou losest any outward thing, what thou gainest in its stead.
Read & copy

“Have this thought ever present with thee, when thou losest any outward thing, what thou gainest in its stead.”

Epictetus · The Golden Sayings of Epictetus · c. 125
Meaning & context

Loss is not automatically the whole story; the instruction asks what freedom, clarity, experience, or other value may accompany what has been given up.

Source details

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XXVII, Hastings Crossley translation.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
Read & copy

“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

Percy Bysshe Shelley · Ode to the West Wind · 1820
Meaning & context

The seasonal image turns hardship into a temporary phase: decline can contain the possibility of renewal even when that renewal is not yet visible.

Source details

Final line of Ode to the West Wind; the changing seasons become a metaphor for historical and personal renewal.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
It is not a lost year, but one that may prove the most helpful of any you ever know.
Read & copy

“It is not a lost year, but one that may prove the most helpful of any you ever know.”

Louisa May Alcott · Jo's Boys · 1886
Voice: Fictional character · Jo Bhaer
Meaning & context

A painful or disappointing period can still become useful experience when it changes judgment, humility, resolve, and the way a person begins again.

Source details

Jo's Boys; the reassurance follows a setback and reframes a difficult year as experience that may later prove unusually helpful rather than simply wasted time.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.
Read & copy

“Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.”

John Milton · Paradise Lost · 1667
Voice: Fictional character · Satan
Meaning & context

Recovery from a dark condition is pictured as difficult and lengthy rather than instant.

Source details

Paradise Lost (1667), Book II, lines 432–433; Satan addresses the infernal council before undertaking the journey out of Hell. The line describes the epic’s literal route from Hell toward light and remains character speech, not a general promise of recovery.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified
On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.
Read & copy

“On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.”

Epictetus · Enchiridion · c. 125 CE
Meaning & context

Instead of beginning with what an event has taken away, the practice asks which capacity—endurance, restraint, patience, or judgment—can still be exercised.

Source details

Enchiridion, section X, George Long translation; Epictetus gives examples such as endurance under pain and patience under abuse.

↓ Download image (JPG)