Every cloud has a silver lining

In this metaphor, 'clouds' are problems or difficulties, and the 'silver linings' are the solutions or positive aspects to those problems or difficulties. John Milton, in his masque Comus (1634) is usually credited with coining the metaphor, when he wrote, “Was I deceived or did a sable cloud turn forth her silver lining on the night?” Thereafter, so many literary references were made to Milton’s ‘cloud with a silver lining’ that by early the 19th century, 'every cloud has a silver lining' had become a well-known saying, in those exact words.