My dad once shared this, his version stated that: once there were a group of wise men, given the task to find a phrase which in all instances is positive. The answer they arrived at, was this: "This too shall pass"
I feel it is quite profound, so I went to google a little and found this that it is quite interesting.
When an Eastern sage was desired by his sultan to inscribe on a ring the sentiment which, amidst the perpetual change of human affairs, was most descriptive of their real tendency, he engraved on it the words : — “And this, too, shall pass away.” It is impossible to imagine a thought more truly and universally applicable to human affairs than that expressed in these memorable words, or more descriptive of that perpetual oscillation from good to evil, and from evil to good, which from the beginning of the world has been the invariable characteristic of the annals of man, and so evidently flows from the strange mixture of noble and generous with base and selfish inclinations, which is constantly found in the children of Adam.[1]
It was also used in 1852, in a retelling of the fable entitled “Solomon’s Seal” by the English poet Edward FitzGerald.[2][ better source needed ] In it, a sultan requests of King Solomon a sentence that would always be true in good times or bad; Solomon responds, “This too will pass away”.[3] On September 30, 1859, Abraham Lincoln recounted a similar story:
It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction![[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_too_shall_pass#cite_note-4)
[5]
