The story
The story is told in many versions, but the bones are the same. A powerful king asks his wise men for a sentence that will be true at every moment, in joy and in sorrow. They think it over and give him a few short words.
The tale goes back at least to the Persian poets of the 1100s, including Sanai and Attar of Nishapur. In Attar’s telling, the king wants a ring that will cheer him when he is sad. The sages hand him a simple ring engraved with words meaning “This too shall pass.” Read in good times, it warns him to stay humble. Read in bad times, it gives him hope.
English readers met the story in the 1800s. In 1852, the poet Edward FitzGerald included it in Polonius, a book of wise sayings. In his version, a sultan asks for “a Signet motto that should hold good for Adversity or Prosperity,” and receives the words “THIS ALSO SHALL PASS AWAY.”
A few years later, in the fall of 1859, Abraham Lincoln told the tale to a farm crowd in Milwaukee. “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,” he said. “They presented him the words: ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’”
