Why do we say "You have to take the rough with the smooth"?

Meaning:

Sometimes things will go easily for you, other times they'll be hard.

Background:

"Take your part as it comyth, of roughe and eke of smooth."

The earliest known source of this proverb is "The Tale of Beryn", which is included in one of the early manuscripts of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales but is widely believed to be the work of a different, less skilled, writer.

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