By Heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,
  To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon,
  Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
  Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
  And pluck up drowned honor by the locks.
K.  Henry IV., Pt.  I. Act i.  Sc. 3.  SHAKESPEARE.

  A wild dedication of yourselves
  To unpathed waters, undreamed shores.
Winter’s Tale, Act iv. Sc. 3.  SHAKESPEARE.

ADVERSITY.

  Sweet are the uses of adversity,
  Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
  Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
As You Like It, Act i. Sc. 3.  SHAKESPEARE.

Calamity is man’s true touchstone. Four Plays in One:  The Triumph of Honor, Sc. 1.  BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.

  More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged
  To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days,
  On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues.
Paradise Lost, Bk.  VII.  MILTON.

Tho’ losses and crosses
Be lessons right severe,
There’s wit there, ye’ll get there,
Ye’ll find nae otherwhere.
Epistle to Davie.  R. BURNS.

              By adversity are wrought
  The greatest work of admiration,
  And all the fair examples of renown
  Out of distress and misery are grown.
On the Earl of Southampton.  S. DANIEL.

Aromatic plants bestow
No spicy fragrance while they grow;
But crushed or trodden to the ground,
Diffuse their balmy sweets around.
The Captivity, Act i.  O. GOLDSMITH.

The Good are better made by Ill,
As odors crushed are sweeter still.
Jacqueline.  S. ROGERS.

Daughter of Jove, relentless power,
Thou tamer of the human breast. 
Whose iron scourge and torturing hour
The bad affright, afflict the best!
Hymn to Adversity.  T. GRAY.

           ’T is better to be lowly born,
  And range with humble livers in content. 
  Than to be perked up in a glistering grief,
  And wear a golden sorrow.
King Henry VIII., Act ii. Sc. 3.  SHAKESPEARE.

As if Misfortune made the throne her seat,
And none could be unhappy but the great.
The Fair Penitent:  Prologue.  N. ROWE.

None think the great unhappy, but the great. Love of Fame, Satire I.  DR. E. YOUNG.

My pride fell with my fortunes. As You Like It, Act i.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.

We have seen better days.
Timon of Athens, Act iv.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.

  If ever you have looked on better days;
  If ever been where bells have knolled to church.
As You Like It, Act ii.  Sc. 7.  SHAKESPEARE.

  O, who can hold a fire in his hand
  By thinking on the frosty Caucasus? 
  Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite
  By bare imagination of a feast? 
  Or wallow naked in December snow,
  By thinking on fantastic Summer’s heat? 
  O, no! the apprehension of the good
  Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.
King Richard II., Act i.  Sc. 2.  SHAKESPEARE.