Only the industrious prosper in life - change this sentence into negative

There are two ways which we can use to change the sentence from affirmative to negative:

1. Not only the industrious prosper in life.

2. Only the industrious do not prosper in life.

Explanation:

1. If we choose to make the negative this way, the meaning we will convey is that industrious people prosper, but they are not the only ones. Other people can prosper too.

2. On the other hand, if we negate this way, we will completely deny the original affirmation. We will be saying that everyone else prospers in life excerpt for industrious people.

Both ways are grammatically correct, even though they convey different meanings.

the words “strangest” and “unusual” suggest that the narrator is about to tell the story of an odd or puzzling group of people.