Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.

God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.

I accept the Old Testament as more of an action movie: blood, car chases, evacuations, a lot of special effects, seas dividing, mass murder, adultery. The children of God are running amok, wayward. Maybe that’s why they’re so relatable.

I read the book of Job last night, I don’t think God comes out well in it.

Is the babe young? When I behold it, it seems more venerable than the oldest man.

But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross.

Anyone who’s looked into a newborn’s innocent eyes should realize how incredible it is to be blessed with a new life.

An economically peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka is the dream of youth of the nation. My message for the youth is to collectively work for an inclusively developed Sri Lanka.

Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation shall continue to prosper as before.

In a democracy, the well-being, individuality and happiness of every citizen is important for the overall prosperity, peace and happiness of the nation.

By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man’s, I mean.

The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.

To correct a natural indifference I was placed half-way between misery and the sun. Misery kept me from believing that all was well under the sun, and the sun taught me that history wasn’t everything.

Few of us can stand prosperity. Another man’s, I mean.

Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with.

Character is formed in the stormy billows of the world.

Prospering just doesn’t have to do with money.

Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.

My life as a child did not prepare me for the fact that the world is full of cruel and bitter things.

Much of India that we dream of still lies ahead of us: housing, power, water and sanitation for all; bank accounts and insurance for every citizen; connected and prosperous villages; and, smart and sustainable cities.

Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, for wise men say it is the wisest course.

Losing is tough.

The learned is happy, nature to explore; The fool is happy, that he knows no more.

When people are taken out of their depths they lose their heads, no matter how charming a bluff they may put up.

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.

The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.

Good luck has its storms.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Ankles are nearly always neat and good-looking, but knees are nearly always not.

When it all got taken away, I was becoming a young man. So I had to sacrifice to leave my family… Sleeping in my car, getting an apartment for a month and getting evicted the next month. Staying in the $25, $50 hotels.

So, for example, a country was into recession right after I was sworn in, a dot-com bust had taken place. Then the attacks of September the 11th, and then of course the great financial meltdown in the -the fundamental question facing any presidency is how do you deal with the hand you’re dealt?

Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

The most eloquent prayer is the prayer through hands that heal and bless.

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.

I was born in a very poor family. I used to sell tea in a railway coach as a child. My mother used to wash utensils and do lowly household work in the houses of others to earn a livelihood. I have seen poverty very closely. I have lived in poverty. As a child, my entire childhood was steeped in poverty.

I respect the fact that many denominations have different points of view with respect to gay marriage and they can hold that in the sanctity in the place of their religion and not bless them or solemnize them.

If a whole bunch of people want to make your life a living hell, they’re gonna do it.

You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know.

People want you to fail.

If you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values.

There’s a belief that you’re supposed to be poor, and suffering, and show your humility. I just don’t see the Bible that way. I see that God came and Jesus died so that we might live an abundant life and be a blessing to others.

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of every industrial area in the whole country.

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.

Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!

The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly.

Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.

God never promised us a trouble-free life.

The New Testament says nothing of Apostles who retired and took it easy.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

How terribly downright must be the utterances of storms and earthquakes to those accustomed to the soft hypocrisies of society.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.

The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.

America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.

Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the dessert, a bit like meringue.

Young men, trust God, and make the future bright with blessing. Old men, trust God, and magnify him for all the mercies of the past.