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ADVERSITY - ADVERTISING

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see: "CHARACTER"
see: "DIFFICULTIES"
see: "LIFE"
see: "MISFORTUNE"
see: "PROBLEMS"
see: "TROUBLE"
see "UNHAPPINESS" for other related links


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Mr. Bettenham said that virtuous men were like some
herbs and spices, that give not out their sweet smell
till they be broken or crushed.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.


Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes,
and is not without comforts and hopes.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
_Essays_ [1625] "Of Adversity"


Prosperity doth best discover vice, but
adversity doth best discover virtue.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
_Essays_ [1625] "Of Adversity"

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Adversity, if for no other reason, is of benefit, since it is sure
to bring a season of sober reflection. Men see clearer at such
time. Storms purify the atmosphere.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister;
[brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher].

This is the mark of a really admirable man:
stead-fastness in the face of trouble.
--Ludwig van Beethoven (1770—1827)
German composer.

There are two ways of meeting difficulties: You
alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet
them.
--Phyllis Bottome [pseud. of Phyllis Forbes-Dennis] (1884—1963)
English novelist and short story writer.

If we had no winter, the spring would not
be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes
taste of adversity, prosperity would not
be so welcome.
--Anne Bradstreet (1612—1672)
The first published American woman writer.
In Nathan Henry Chamberlain
_Samuel Sewall and the World He Lived In_, p. 251 [1897]

The gem cannot be polished without friction,
nor man perfected without trials.
--Chinese proverb.
In _The Teacher's Visitor_ (Ed. by W.C. Wilson), p. 233 [1846].

In prosperity our friends know us;
In adversity we know our friends.
--J. Churton Collins (1884—1908)
British author, critic, and scholar.
In Robert Andrews
_The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 5 [1989].

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He that has never known adversity is but half
acquainted with others, or with himself.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.


Times of great calamity and confusion have ever been
productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is
produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest
thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.

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There is no education like adversity.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881)
British Tory statesman, novelist, and
Prime Minister [1868, 1874—1880].
_Endymion_ [1880]

No matter how bad things are, they can always be
worse. So what if my stroke left me with a speech
impediment? Moses had one, and he did all right.
--Kirk Douglas [Issur Danielovitch] (1916— )
American film actor and producer.

Bad times have a scientific value. These are
occasions a good learner would not miss.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
"Considerations by the Way" [1860]
_The Conduct of Life_ [1860]

In times of prosperity friends will be plenty,
in times of adversity not one in twenty.
--English proverb

He that can heroically endure adversity will bear
prosperity with equal greatness of soul; for the
mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not
likely to be transported with the latter.
--Henry Fielding (1707—1754)
English novelist and dramatist.

One month in the school of affliction will teach thee more
than the great precepts of Aristotle in seven years; for thou
canst never judge rightly of human affairs, unless thou hast
first felt the blows, and found out the deceits of fortune.
--Thomas Fuller (1654—1734)
English writer and physician.

Aromatic plants bestow
No spicy fragrance while they grow;
But crush'd or trodden to the ground,
Diffuse their balmy sweets around.
--Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774)
Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist.
_The Captivity_, act 1 [1764]

If the elephants visit your farm you do
not worry about the monkeys
--Hausa proverb, Nigeria

Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
_Sketches and Essays_ [1829] "On the Conversation of Lords"
Quoted in William Shepard Walsh _The International
Encyclopedia of Prose and Poetical Quotations_, p. 14 [1908].

Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous
circumstances would have lain dormant.
--Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65—8 BC)
Roman poet.

No man is more unhappy than the one who is never in adversity; the greatest
affliction of life is never to be afflicted. Adversity makes men, and prosperity
makes monsters.
--Victor Hugo (1802—1885)
French poet, dramatist, and novelist.

Here's to a fellow who smiles,
When life runs along like a song,
And here's to a lad who can smile,
When everything goes dead wrong.
--Irish toast

But there, everything has its drawbacks,
as the man said when his mother-in-law
died, and they came down upon him for
the funeral expenses.
--Jerome K Jerome (1859—1927)
English novelist and playwright.
_Three Men in a Boat_ [1889]

Adversity has ever been considered the state in
which a man most easily becomes acquainted
with himself.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.

He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.
--Ben Jonson (c.1573—1637)
English dramatist and poet.
_Timber: or, Discoveries_ [1640]
Quoted in Robert Chambers _The Book of Days_, p. 183 [1832].

Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the
Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this
sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long
imprisonment: 'It is not adversity that kills, but
the impatience with which we bear adversity.'.
--James Keller,
_Three Minutes_ [1950]

If there's nobody in your way, it's because
you're not going anywhere.
--Robert F. Kennedy (1925—1968)
American Democratic politician.
In Elizabeth Dole _Hearts Touched with Fire_, p. 110 [2004].

People are like stained glass windows; they sparkle
and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness
sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a
light within.
--Elisabeth Kόbler-Ross
Swiss-born psychiatrist and author.

In the adversity of our best friends we often find
something which does not displease us.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Maxims_ [1665] #99

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you
want to test a man's character, give him power.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].

Adversity reminds men of religion.
--Livy [Titus Livius] (59 BC—17 AD)
with Sallust and Tacitus, one of
the three great Roman historians [EB].
_The History of Rome_

An Eastern proverb says that calamities sent by heaven may be avoided
but from those we bring on ourselves there is no escape.
--Sir John Lubbock (1834—1913)
The First Lord and Baron Avebury who was a
British banker, politician, and archaeologist.

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Examine the lives of the best
and most fruitful men and peoples,
and ask yourselves whether a tree,
if it is to grow proudly into the sky,
can do without bad weather and storms
-- whether unkindness and opposition
from without; and whether hatred, envy,
obstinacy, mistrust, severity, greed,
and violence do not belong to the
favoring circumstances, without which,
a great increase, even in virtue,
is hardly possible.

Poison destroys the weak nature,
but somehow strengthens the strong --
and neither is it called poison.

--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
_Frolicking Science_ [1882], ch.19


That which does not kill me makes me stronger.
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
_Twilight of the Idols_ [1888]

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Socrates thought that if all our misfortunes were laid
in one common heap, whence every one must take an
equal portion, most persons would be contented to
take their own and depart.
--Plutarch (A.D. 46?—119?)
Greek philosopher and biographer.
_Consolation to Apollonius_


Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the
only balance to weigh friends.
--Plutarch (A.D. 46?—119?)
Greek philosopher and biographer.

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It is a consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery.
--Publilius Syrus (85—43 B.C.)
Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave.
_Maxims_, #995

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the
oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens
that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of
mind sooner than those of a loftier character.
--Sir Walter Scott (1771—1832)
Scottish novelist and poet.
_The Pirate_ [1821], ch. 36

Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be
bare, and look forward to the time when we may pick the fruit.
--Peter Sellers (1925—1980)
English comic actor.

Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.
_Moral Essays_, "On Providence"

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_As You Like It_ [1599-1600], Act II, Scene I, Line 12

Remember that in all miseries lamenting
becomes fools, and action, wise folk.
--Sir Philip Sidney (1554—1586)
English soldier, poet, and courtier.

Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go
on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace,
like a clock during a thunderstorm.
--Robert Louis Stevenson (1850—1894)
Scottish essayist, poet, and novelist.

When you get into a tight place, and everything goes
against you, till it seems as though you could not
hold on a moment longer, never give up then -- for
that is just the place and time that the tide will
turn.
--Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811—1896)
American writer and philanthropist.
[Sister of Henry Ward Beecher, daughter of Lyman Beecher].

It is good, too, that we sometimes suffer opposition,
and that men think ill of us and misjudge us, even
when we do and mean well. Such things are an aid to
humility, and preserve us from pride and vainglory.
For we more readily turn to God as our inward witness,
when men despise us and think no good of us.
--Thomas a' Kempis (1380—1471)
German ascetical writer.
_The Imitation of Christ_ [c. 1420]; Book 1,
"On The Uses of Adversity"

By trying, we can easily learn to endure
adversity. Another man's, I mean.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Following the Equator_ [1897]

Laugh and the world laughs with you,
Weep and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
--Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850—1919)
American author and poet.
"Solitiude," published in the _New York Sun_ [25 February 1883].

--

Parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule.
The mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer
heard the mule braying or whatever mules do when
they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the
situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but
decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth
the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors
together and told them what had happened and
enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule
in the well and put him out of his misery.

Initially, the old mule was hysterical! But as the
farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and
the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It
suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel
load of dirt landed on his back, he should shake
it off and step up!

This he did, blow after blow. 'Shake it off and step
up --shake it off and step up--shake it off and step
up,' he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how
painful the blows or distressing the situation seemed,
the old mule fought panic and just kept right on
shaking it off and stepping up.

It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and
exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall
of that well.

What seemed like it would bury him actually blessed
him--all because of the manner in which he handled
his adversity.

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nadir NAY-dir; nay-DIR, noun:
2. The lowest point; the time of greatest depression
or adversity.



ADVERTISING

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see "CAPITALISM" for related links


The cheap contractions and revised spellings
of the advertising world which have made the
beauty of the written word almost unrecognizable
— surely any society that permits the substitution
of 'kwik' for 'quick' and 'e.z.' for 'easy' does
not deserve Shakespeare, Eliot, or Michener.
--Russell Baker (1925— )
American journalist and columnist.
(Column in "New York Times" as quoted
in Ned Sherrin _Cutting Edge_ [1984].)

The faults of advertising are only those common to all human
institutions. If advertising speaks to a thousand in order to
influence one, so does the church. And if it encourages people
to live beyond their means, so does matrimony. Good times, bad
times, there will always be advertising. In good times, people
want to advertise; in bad times they have to.
--Bruce Barton (1886—1967)
American advertising executive, religious writer, and Congressman.
[Comment, 1955.]

^^

Clergymen across the United States denounced Sarah Bernhardt from
their pulpits as the 'whore of Babylon', thereby assuring massive
attendance at her performances. The Episcopalian bishop of
Chicago having delivered a particularly effective piece of
publicity, Bernhardt arranged for her agent to send him a note
and a bank draft. 'Your Excellency,' the note read, 'I am
accustomed, when I bring an attraction to your town, to spend
$400 on advertising. As you have done half the advertising
for me, I herewith enclose $200 for your parish.'
--_The Folio Book of Humorous Anecdotes_
[2005] "Church and Clergy"

^^

I recall an advertising tycoon, Bruce Barton, saying in the
late 1940s, when we were in a dither about the Russians:
"What we ought to do is send up a flight of a thousand
B-29s and drop a million Sears, Roebuck catalogs all
over Russia."
--Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (1908—2004)
British-born American broadcater and journalist.
_America_ [1973]

Advertising is the life of trade.
--Calvin Coolidge (1872—1933)
American Republican statesman and President [1923-1929].

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For a Time in the '50s, A Huckster Fanned Fears of Ad 'Hypnosis'
by Cynthia Crossen
_The Wall Street Journal_ [5 November 2007]

At a New York press conference 50 years ago, a market researcher, James Vicary, announced he had invented a way to make people buy things whether they wanted them or not. It was called subliminal advertising.

He had tested the process at a New Jersey movie theater, he said, where he had flashed the words "Eat Popcorn" or "Coca-Cola" on the screen every five seconds as the films played. The words came and went so fast — in three-thousandths of a second — that the audience didn't know they'd seen them. Yet sales of popcorn and Coke increased significantly.

"Subliminal Messages — Friend or Foe?" a newspaper headline asked in early 1959, and the public took sides. Critics called subliminal advertising "merchandising hypnosis" and "remote control of national thought." Rep. William A. Dawson (R., Utah) called it "S.P." or "sneak pitch." "Contemplate, if you will," Mr. Dawson said, "the effect of an invisible but effective appeal to 'drink more beer' being poured into the subconscious of teenage viewers."

All three television networks vowed they wouldn't permit subliminal advertising in their broadcasts. Several state legislatures considered bills outlawing it.

In 1958, an independent Los Angeles TV station announced it would begin transmitting subliminal ads, starting with public-service messages, such as "Drive Safely" or "Join the Army." The station was deluged with letters, phone calls and petitions from people who were afraid they would be persuaded to do or buy things against their will. The station canceled its test.

Brainwashing was a very real fear in the late 1950s. A few dozen American prisoners of the Korean War, indoctrinated by their Chinese jailers, had publicly defected to communism. Meanwhile, people were spending more time staring at screens, exposed to new kinds of ads based on motivational research. Vance Packard's best-selling exposι, "The Hidden Persuaders," published in 1957, had warned people of the "mass psychoanalysis" that was turning them into "Pavlov's conditioned dog."

A newspaper columnist, George Dixon, wrote, only partly in jest, "We might be made to unconsciously absorb the suggestion that it is always Christmas and normal to be flat broke." It didn't take long before rationality reasserted control of the national brain. People began trying to replicate Mr. Vicary's experiment.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. flashed the message "Telephone now" 352 times on a 30-minute program. Of the more than 500 viewers who responded to a follow-up survey, 51% said they felt compelled to "do something" after watching the show. Many said they felt like having something to eat or drink. Only one said she felt like making a phone call.

In another test in San Francisco, 150 viewers, most of them television and radio broadcasters, watched a 25-minute film with an advertising message flashed every five seconds. The viewers then got a ballot with nine product names from which to identify the advertiser. Only 14 people chose the right name, a soft drink. More than twice as many chose a brand of chewing gum.

[ . . . ]

In 1962, Mr. Vicary, in an interview, admitted that he had fabricated the results of the popcorn test to drum up business for his market-research firm. Subliminal ads were tossed into the invention junkyard.

"All I accomplished," he said, "was to put a new word into common usage."

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To keep people buying, you need first to make
them dissatisfied with what they have. . .
Advertising is nothing more than a technique
to keep people in a state of perpetual dissat-
isfaction with what they possess and in a
permanent state of itchy acquisitiveness.
--Felix Greene (1909—1985)
British-American journalist.

Society drives people crazy with lust
and calls it advertising.
--John Lahr (1941— )
American critic.
In "Guardian" [2 August 1989].

Advertising may be described as the science
of arresting human intelligence long enough
to get money from it.
--Stephen Butler Leacock (1869—1944)
Canadian humorist.
_Garden of Folly_ [1924] "The Perfect Salesman"

Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is
the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the
goods are worthless.
--Sinclair Lewis (1885—1951)
American novelist and playwright.
_Gideon Planish_ [1943], ch. 26

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride...
--part of a 1920s advertisement for Listerine [invented in 1879 as
surgical antiseptic], for its newly invented use as a mouthwash against
halitosis, from Katherine Ashenburg, _The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized
History_ [2007].

Believe me, Ovaltine's got what it takes
to help you be a leader in your gang.
--Captain Midnight
_The Best Classic Commercials from
the 50's and 60's_ [1993]

I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely
as a tree. Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree at all.
--Ogden Nash (1902—1971)
American writer of humorous poetry.

Exhilarating, invigorating, aids digestion.
--Pepsi ad [1903]

"Wanted: Young, skinny, wirey fellows not over 18. Must
be expert riders willing to risk death daily. Orphans
preferred. Wages $25 per week."
--Pony Express Advertisement [1860]

In the factory we make cosmetics; in
the drugstore we sell hope.
--Charles Haskell Revson (1906—1975)
American businessman.

Let advertisers spend the same amount of
money improving their product that they
do on advertising and they wouldn't have
to advertise it.
--Will Rogers [William Penn Adair Rogers] (1879—1935)
American humorist and actor.

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Without grounds for complaint.
--ad for coffee company Alexander Balar [1926]

I'm Chiquita Banana,
and I've come to say
bananas have to ripen
in a certain way [. . . ]

See the USA in your Chevrolet!
--General Motors Corp.
(Commercial sung by Dinah Shore.)

Ah, a box of matches and a pack of Old Gold
cigarettes. That's all you need, my friend, and
you're enjoying the smoothest, mildest, tastiest
cigarette ever created. A treat instead of a
treatment. That's Old Gold cigarettes. Made by
tobacco men, not medicine men. To give you the
cigarette that treats you better in every way,
because in every way, it's a better cigarette.
Good, huh? Yes, for a treat instead of a treatment,
get a pack — or get a carton — of Old Gold cigarettes.
--Dennis James (1917—1997)
American game-show host.
_The Best Classic Commercials from the 50's and 60's_ [1993]

^

Bromodosis (odor caused by foot perspiration)
Homotosis (lack of nice furniture)
Acidosis (upset stomach)
Sneaker Smell
Accelerator Toe
Office Hips
Vacation Knees
Ashtray Breath
Coalitosis (use of coal, instead of oil, heat)
Underarm Offense
--New 'diseases' created by 1920s advertising,
in Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster _The Century_ [1998] p. 112.

^

---

On April 25, 1974, the "Toronto Star" reported
the deaths of Mr. Todd Missfield and Ms. Bonnie
Johnson who died when their Cessna 150 airplane
crashed into a billboard. The message on the
billboard read: "Learn to Fly."


Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?
--The Five Man Electrical Band
_Signs_ [1971 song]
(Lyrics by Les Emmerson)

----

OLD PRINT ADS

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ballyhoo
noun (plural bal·ly·hoos)
1. sensational advertising: sensational,
loud, or sustained advertising
2. uproar: a noisy argument or disturbance

The word "slogan" comes from the Gaelic,
"sluaghghairm," meaning war cry.


end page



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