quotations about misfortune
The effect of supreme and irrevocable misfortune is to elevate those souls which it does not deprive of all virtue.
GUIZOT
attributed, Day's Collacon
Man is extraordinarily clever in preventing himself from being happy; it would seem that the less able he is to endure misfortune the more apt he is to attach himself to it.
ANDRE GIDE
Journals
One day you'd think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune.
WILLIAM FAULKNER
The Sound and the Fury
But strong of limb
And swift of foot misfortune is, and, far
Outstripping all, comes first to every land,
And there wreaks evil on mankind, which prayers
Do afterwards redress.
HOMER
The Iliad
There is no accident so exquisitely unfortunate, but wise men will make some advantage of it.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
One advantage gained by calamities, is to know how to sympathize with others in the like troubles.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
We have all been beaten! Each one has to bear his misfortune! Resign yourself!
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Salammbo
None think the great unhappy, but the great.
EDWARD YOUNG
Love of Fame
Disappointment or misfortune don't last long among us, the poor; we can't live if we brood on them the whole time.
VIRAMMA RACINE
Viramma: Life of an Untouchable
One must not try to trick misfortune, but resign oneself to it with good grace.
ARISTOPHANES
The Thesmophoriazusae
Calamity is man's true touch-stone.
FRANCIS BEAUMONT & JOHN FLETCHER
The Triumph of Honour
Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
Democracy and Addresses
Misfortune is next door to stupidity, and it will often be found that men who are constantly lamenting their luck, are in some way or other reaping the consequences of their own neglect, mismanagement, improvidence, or want of application.
SAMUEL SMILES
Self-Help
Cease to anticipate misfortune--there are still many chances of escape.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
Those who have endured some misfortune will always be set apart but that it is just that misfortune which is their gift and which is their strength and that they must make their way back into the common enterprise of man for without they do so it cannot go forward and they themselves will whither in bitterness.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
All the Pretty Horses
It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.
AESCHYLUS
Agamemnon
Reflect upon your present blessings -- of which every man has many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
CHARLES DICKENS
"Characters", Sketches by Boz
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,
And welt'ring in his blood;
Deserted at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth expos'd he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.
JOHN DRYDEN
Alexander's Feast
A consciousness of misfortunes arising from a man's own misconduct aggravates their bitterness.
AESOP
"The Eagle and the Arrow", Aesop's Fables
Misfortunes cannot suffice to make a fool into an intelligent man.
CESARE PAVESE
This Business of Living