quotations about misfortune
Mankind accepts good fortune as his due, but when bad occurs, he thinks it was aimed at him, done to him, a hex, a curse, a punishment by his deity for some transgression, as though his god were a petty storekeeper, counting up the day's receipts.
SHERI S. TEPPER
The Visitor
Ignorance of one's misfortunes is clear gain.
EURIPIDES
fragment, Antiope
O, give me thy hand,
One writ with me in sour misfortune's book.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
Yes, there was an element of abstraction and unreality in misfortune. But when an abstraction starts to kill you, you have to get to work on it.
ALBERT CAMUS
The Plague
The very remembrance of my former misfortune proves a new one to me.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES
Don Quixote
As a rule, I don't like to laugh at the misfortune of others. The exception to that rule is if it's really, really funny.
SCOTT ADAMS
Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!
During misfortunes, nothing aggravates our condition more, than to be esteemed deserving of them.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
The longer you dwell on your misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm you.
CROFT M. PENTZ
The Complete Book of Zingers
Unable to attribute misfortune to chance, unable to accept their ultimate insignificance within the greater scheme, the people looked for monsters in their midst.
BERNARD BECKETT
Genesis
Misfortune begets misfortune: life is a misfortune, for it may be the means of enduring misfortune; and death is a misfortune, as it abridges the enjoyments of life.
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
The Spy
Since misfortunes cannot be avoided, let them be generously borne; it is not for any sort of men to expect an exemption from the common lot of mankind; and no person is truly great, but he that keeps up the same dignity of mind in all conditions.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
As the worm crawleth up to the surface only when it rains, so doth a man's best self emerge only in misfortune.
IVAN PANIN
Thoughts
Misfortune is, like the honest man, as good as her word.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine
If all men would bring their misfortunes together in one place, most would be glad to take his own home again, rather than to take a proportion out of the common stock.
SOLON
attributed, Day's Collacon
Only he has a right to complain of undeserved misfortune, that is unwilling to accept undeserved good fortune.
IVAN PANIN
Thoughts
It seems the misfortune of one can plow a deeper furrow in the heart than the misfortune of millions.
KIRBY LARSON
Hattie Big Sky
Misfortune was much more interesting to her than good luck.
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
Jo's Boys
When two laugh it is certain a misfortune has happened--to a third.
CHARLES EDWARD JERNINGHAM
The Maxims of Marmaduke
Everybody has their days of misfortune.
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
An Old-Fashioned Girl
If misfortune assail thee, put on the helmet of patience, and draw the sabre of resolution; then shall it flee before thee.
AR-RASHID
attributed, Day's Collacon