This Too Shall Pass Gam zeh ya'avo ring Solomon commissioned a ring to be designed that would always keep him in a proper frame of mind, a ring that would help ward off depression and at the same time also protect him from an excess of confidence in days when good fortune smiled. Could such a ring be designed? Absolutely! The words "Gam zeh ya`avor.." - "This too shall pass...." were engraved on the ring so that if days of darkness and sadness would descend, the king would be fortified by the knowledge that Gam zeh ya`avor - this too would pass. But if, on the other hand, the king had occasion to exult in good fortune, the ring would protect him from over exuberance, for in the end, that too would pass. Here's Lincoln's version of the tale: "'It is said an Eastern monarch (King Solomon) 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!' -An Address by Abraham Lincoln Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, September 30, 1859