Prosperity

Prosperity refers to states of flourishing, thriving, good fortune, or successful social status, which often involve measurable wealth but also includes others factors which can be independent of this to varying degrees, such as happiness and health.

• Prosperity seems to be scarcely safe, unless it be mixed with a little adversity.
  • Hosea Ballou, Treasury of Thought.

• Our inhabitants are especially free to promote their own welfare. They are unburdened by militarism. They are not called upon to support any imperialistic designs. Every mother can rest in the assurance that her children will find here a land of devotion, prosperity and peace. The tall shaft near which we are gathered and yonder stately memorial remind us that our standards of manhood are revealed in the adoration which we pay to Washington and Lincoln. They are unrivaled and unsurpassed. Above all else, they are Americans.
  • Calvin Coolidge, Address before the Holy Name Society, Washington, D.C., (21 September 1924).

• Abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our greatest adversity.
  • Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719).

• It is best for all to leave each man free to acquire property as fast as he can. Some will get wealthy. I don't believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good. So while we do not propose any war upon capital, we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with everybody else. When one starts poor, as most do in the race of life, free society is such that he knows he can better his condition; he knows that there is no fixed condition of labor, for his whole life. I am not ashamed to confess that twenty-five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flat-boat, just what might happen to any poor man's son! I want every man to have the chance, and I believe a black man is entitled to it, in which he can better his condition. When he may look forward and hope to be a hired laborer this year and the next, work for himself afterward, and finally to hire men to work for him! That is the true system.
  • Abraham Lincoln, "Allow the humblest man an equal chance" speech (6 March 1860) at New Haven, Connecticut.

• Surer to prosper than prosperity could have assur'd us.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book II, line 39.

• I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.
  • Barack Hussein Obama II, speech on Wall Street reform at Quincy (28 April 2010), Illinois

• There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny: the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II (1590-91), Act IV, scene 2, line 70.

• Prosperity's the very bond of love.
  • William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (c. 1610-11), Act IV, scene 4, line 584.

• Oh, how portentous is prosperity!
  How comet-like, it threatens while it shines.
  • Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night V, line 915

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 637-38.

• In rebus prosperis, superbiam, fastidium arrogantiamque magno opere fugiamus.
  • In prosperity let us most carefully avoid pride, disdain, and arrogance.
  • Cicero, De Officiis (44 B.C.), I. 26.

• Ut adversas res, secundas immoderate ferre, levitatis est.
  • It shows a weak mind not to bear prosperity as well as adversity with moderation.
  • Cicero, De Officiis (44 B.C.), I. 26.

• C'est un faible roseau que la prospérité.
  • Prosperity is a feeble reed.
  • Daniel d'Anchères, Tyr et Sidon.

• Alles in der Welt lässt sich ertragen,
  Nur nicht eine Reihe von schönen Tagen.
  • Everything in the world may be endured, except only a succession of prosperous days.
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sprüche in Reimen, III.

• Prosperity lets go the bridle.
  • George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651).

• The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
  • Isaiah, XXXV. 1.

• I wish you every kind of prosperity, with a little more taste.
  • Alain René Le Sage, Gil Blas (1715-1735), Book VII, Chapter IV. Henri Van Laun's translation.

• Felix se nescit amari.
  • The prosperous man does not know whether he is loved.
  • Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia, VII. 727.

• They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree.
  • Micah, IV. 4.

• Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.
  • Proverbs, III, 16.

• Est felicibus difficilis miserarium vera æstimatio.
  • The prosperous can not easily form a right idea of misery.
  • Quintilian, De Institutione Oratoria, IX, 6.

• Res secundæ valent commutare naturam, et raro quisquam erga bona sua satis cautus est.
  • Prosperity can change man's nature; and seldom is any one cautious enough to resist the effects of good fortune.
  • Quintus Curtius Rufus, De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni, X, 1, 40.

• Quantum caliginis mentibus nostris objicit magna felicitas!
  • How much does great prosperity overspread the mind with darkness.
  • Seneca the Younger, De Brevitate Vitæ, XIII.

• Semel profecto premere felices deus
  Cum cœpit, urget; hos habent magna exitus.
  • When God has once begun to throw down the prosperous, He overthrows them altogether: such is the end of the mighty.
  • Seneca the Younger, Hercules Œtæus, 713.

• La prospérité fait peu d'amis.
  • Prosperity makes few friends.
  • Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, Reflexions, XVII.

• Prosperity doth bewitch men, seeming clear;
  As seas do laugh, show white, when rocks are near.
  • John Webster, White Devil, Act V, scene 6.

• Adversity

• The dictionary definition of prosperity on Wiktionary
• Klopsch, Louis, 1852-1910 (1896). Many Thoughts of Many Minds.