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Quotations about blessings
Note that not all quotations have been tagged, so the Search function may find additional quotations on this topic.
I have no faith in the sense of comforting beliefs which persuade me that all my troubles are blessings in disguise.
Rebecca West (1892-1983) British author, journalist, literary critic, travel writer [pseud. for Cicily Isabel Fairfield]
“Pleasure Be Your Guide,” The Nation, “Living Philosophies” series #10 (25 Feb 1939)
(Source)
Adapted into Clifton Fadiman, I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Certain Eminent Men and Women of Our Time (1952)
For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Nicomachean Ethics, Book 1, Sec. 7 (1098a) (350 BC) [tr. Ross (1908)]
(Source)
Alt. trans.:
- "For one swallow or one fine day does not make a spring, nor does one day or any small space of time make a blessed or happy man." [tr. Peters (1893)]
- "For one swallow does not make a spring, nor does one day. Nor, similarly, does one day or a short time make someone blessed and happy." [tr. Reeve (2014)]
- "For as one swallow or one day does not make a spring, so one day ora short time does not make a fortunate or happy man." [tr. Weldon (1892)]
He sendeth sun, he sendeth shower,
Alike they’re needful to the flower;
And joys and tears alike are sent
To give the soul fit nourishment.
As comes to me or cloud or sun,
Father! thy will, not mine, be done.Sarah Fuller Adams (1805-1848) English poet (nee Flower)
“He sendeth Sun, he sendeth Shower”
Men understand the worth of blessings only when they have lost them.
Plautus (b. c. 254 BC) Roman playright [Titus Macchius Plautus]
The Captives (3rd C BC)
Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.
Helen Keller (1880-1968) American author and lecturer
The Open Door (1957)
Quite often, people who mean well will inquire of me whether I ever ask myself, in the face of my diseases, “Why me?” I never do. If I ask “Why me?” as I am assaulted by heart disease and AIDS, I must ask “Why me?” about my blessings, and question my right to enjoy them. The morning after I won Wimbledon in 1975 I should have asked “Why me?” and doubted that I deserved the victory. If I don’t ask “Why me?” after my victories, I cannot ask “Why me?” after my setbacks and disasters.
Arthur Ashe (1943-1993) American athlete
Days of Grace, ch. 10 (1993)
Often paraphrased (or used elsewhere by Ashe) as "If I were to say 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life."
