every cloud has a silver lining
- 1No matter how bad a situation is, some good can be found in it.
After the flood forced the town to rebuild, residents got a safer, sturdier bridge out of it; every cloud has a silver lining.
She kept reminding herself that every cloud has a silver lining as she packed up the apartment after the breakup.
Note
A proverb so familiar that speakers often stop halfway. In Life on Mars (2007), Gene Hunt consoles a man who has been beaten up and has lost his job with just "every cloud," trusting him to supply the rest. The clipped form usually sounds wry, offered as cold comfort rather than sincere cheer. The image behind it belongs to silver lining, which also works as a phrase on its own.
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