every cloud has a silver lining

Every negative situation has the potential to result in or produce something positive or beneficial. (A silver lining on a cloud is an indication that the sun is behind it.) I know you're upset about not getting the lead in the school play, but just keep in mind that every cloud has a silver lining—you'll get lots of experience as the understudy! When I'm going through a hard time, I try to remind myself that every cloud has a silver lining.

The potential for something positive or beneficial to result from a negative situation. Often used in the phrase "every cloud has a silver lining." (A silver lining on a cloud is an indication that the sun is behind it.) There could be a silver lining to getting laid off—you might find a job you actually like!

Prov. You can derive some benefit from every bad thing that happens to you. (You can also refer to the silver lining of a particular cloud, the benefit you can derive from a particular misfortune.) I'm sorry your business is going badly, but don't despair. Every cloud has a silver lining. When Mary's friends visited her in the hospital, they tried to cheer her up, but Mary never could find the silver lining in the cloud of her illness.

An element of hope or a redeeming quality in an otherwise bad situation, as in The rally had a disappointing turnout, but the silver lining was that those who came pledged a great deal of money . This metaphoric term is a shortening of Every cloud has a silver lining, in turn derived from John Milton's Comus (1634): "A sable cloud turns forth its silver lining on the night."

The worst situation has some element of hope or some redeeming quality. John Milton appears to have been the originator of this metaphor, in Comus (1634): “A sable cloud turns forth its silver lining on the night.” It was adopted by numerous later writers and so was already a cliché by the time it appeared in the popular World War I song, “Keep the Home Fires Burning” (Ivor Novello and Lena Guilhert, 1915): “There’s a silver lining through the dark clouds shining.” Noël Coward played on it in a song of the 1930s: “Every silver lining has its cloud.”