what circumstances ? MAKE circumstances...make them -- napoleon bonaparte

The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light,

That stood out in the open plain,

And always got its share of rain,

Never became a forest king !



The man who never had to toil,

who never had to win his share,

of sky and sun and light and air,

Never became a mighty man,

But lived and died as he began.



Good timber does not grow in ease;

The stronger wind, the tougher trees:

The more the storm, the more the strength;

By the sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees or man, good timber grows.



Where thickest stands the forests growth,

We find the patriarchs of both,

And they hold converse with the stars,

Whose broken branches show the scars

Of many winds and much of strife.

This is the common law of life.


- Unknown