But Dangers that are past, are pleasant to be thought on

Echoes across time.

From Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I, Shipwreck.

Antony: You tell dreadful Stories: Is this going to Sea? God forbid that ever any such Thing should come into my Mind.

Adolph: That which I have related, is but a Diversion, in Comparison to what you'll hear presently.

Antony: I have heard Calamities enough already, my Flesh trembles to hear you relate them, as if I were in Danger myself.

Adolph: But Dangers that are past, are pleasant to be thought on.

Reminds me of a Churchill quote. From The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War (1898), Chapter X.

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.