Settle one difficulty, and you keep a hundred away.

If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure 9 will go in the ditch and you have only one to battle with.

One joy dispels a hundred cares.

Solving large, difficult problems may earn you a reputation for skillful negotiation, but Sun Tzu asserts that this supposed achievement is actually a form of failure, and having true wisdom means preventing difficult problems from arising in the first place. Ironically,

When I have a difficult subject before me — when I find the road narrow, and can see no other way of teaching a well established truth except by pleasing one intelligent man and displeasing ten thousand fools — I prefer to address myself to the one man, and to take no notice whatever of the condemnation of the multitude; I prefer to extricate that intelligent man from his embarrassment and show him the cause of his perplexity, so that he may attain perfection and be at peace.

Rilke recommended that when life became turbulent and troublesome, it was wise to stay close to one simple thing in nature.

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow

Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds — all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.

Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you. I'll not willingly offend, nor be easily offended.

One clear-cut result is worth a dozen wise precautions.

Each of us found pleasure, whenever possible, in focusing on one small task. One task, we often said, clears the mind.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man, but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over us by the supreme ordinance of a parental guardian and legislator, who knows us better than we know ourselves, as he loves us better too. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

The cheerful mind perseveres and the strong mind hews its way through a thousand difficulties.