"Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity"
About this Quote
Adversity bruises the body and pride, yet prosperity often proves the fiercer trial. Hard times demand resilience, courage, and ingenuity; they strip life down to essentials and can clarify character. Success, by contrast, cloaks its dangers in comfort. Wealth and acclaim remove friction, multiply choices, and flood a person with approval. The self can quietly loosen from its moorings. Complacency replaces hunger, flattery drowns out honest counsel, and appetite expands until it becomes a trap. For every person who finds a way to endure sorrow, a far smaller number keep their integrity, discipline, and perspective when rewarded beyond measure.
The line is often credited to Elvis Presley, though it originates with the Victorian essayist Thomas Carlyle. Even so, Elvis embodies its truth with haunting clarity. He handled early adversity with poise: a poor boy from Tupelo whose ambition, work ethic, and musical curiosity carried him through rejection, grueling tours, and the scrutiny of the 1950s moral panic. The real test arrived with prosperity. Fame built a gilded cage. An entourage of yes-men insulated him from challenge, Colonel Parker managed him into an exhausting cycle of films and residencies, and the comforts of wealth offered chemical relief that became dependence. The man who thrived under pressure onstage struggled to live well amid ease off it. Prosperity did not break his talent, but it eroded the habits and boundaries that protect a life.
Psychology names this danger hedonic adaptation: the extraordinary becomes ordinary, and the appetite escalates in search of feeling. Without counterweights like purpose, accountability, and limits, success acts like a solvent on character. The aphorism, then, is less a celebration of toughness in hardship than a warning about the subtler storm that follows triumph. Standing prosperity means treating comfort as a test requiring as much vigilance as any battle, and refusing to let abundance unmake the person adversity helped forge.
The line is often credited to Elvis Presley, though it originates with the Victorian essayist Thomas Carlyle. Even so, Elvis embodies its truth with haunting clarity. He handled early adversity with poise: a poor boy from Tupelo whose ambition, work ethic, and musical curiosity carried him through rejection, grueling tours, and the scrutiny of the 1950s moral panic. The real test arrived with prosperity. Fame built a gilded cage. An entourage of yes-men insulated him from challenge, Colonel Parker managed him into an exhausting cycle of films and residencies, and the comforts of wealth offered chemical relief that became dependence. The man who thrived under pressure onstage struggled to live well amid ease off it. Prosperity did not break his talent, but it eroded the habits and boundaries that protect a life.
Psychology names this danger hedonic adaptation: the extraordinary becomes ordinary, and the appetite escalates in search of feeling. Without counterweights like purpose, accountability, and limits, success acts like a solvent on character. The aphorism, then, is less a celebration of toughness in hardship than a warning about the subtler storm that follows triumph. Standing prosperity means treating comfort as a test requiring as much vigilance as any battle, and refusing to let abundance unmake the person adversity helped forge.
Quote Details
| Topic | Resilience |
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