Quotes and Sayings about Misfortune
"Property is not the sacred right. When a rich man becomes poor it is a misfortune, it is not a moral evil. When a poor man becomes destitute, it is a moral evil, teeming with consequences and injurious to society and morality."
- Lord Acton
(Related: Society, Morality, Consequences, Evil, Man, Misfortune, Poor, Property, Right)
"A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes."
- Joseph Addison
(Related: Blessings, Day, Influence)
"For this is the mark of a wise and upright man, not to rail against the gods in misfortune."
- Aeschylus
(Related: Gods, Man, Misfortune)
"Ah, lives of men! When prosperous they glitter - Like a fair picture; when misfortune comes - A wet sponge at one blow has blurred the painting."
- Aeschylus
(Related: Misfortune, Painting)
"The unhappy derive comfort from the misfortunes of others."
- Aesop
(Related: Comfort)
"Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own."
- Aesop
"Look at misfortune the same way you look at success - Don't Panic! Do you best and forget the consequences."
- Walt Alston
(Related: Success, Consequences, Forget, Misfortune)
"I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life."
- Walter Anderson
(Related: Life, Attitude, May)
"Misfortune shows those who are not really friends."
- Aristotle
(Related: Friends, Misfortune)
"In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds."
- Aristotle
(Related: Life, Comfort, Deeds, Friends, Old, Poverty, Weakness)
"Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, "This is a misfortune" but "To bear this worthily is good fortune.""
- Marcus Aurelius
(Related: Fortune, Future)
"A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can."
- Jane Austen
(Related: Misfortune, Woman)
"Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter."
- Francis Bacon
(Related: Children)
"A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault."
- Walter Bagehot
(Related: Mother, Wife, Fault, Man, Misfortune)
"Reporters thrive on the world's misfortune. For this reason they often take an indecent pleasure in events that dismay the rest of humanity."
- Russell Baker
(Related: Events, Humanity, Misfortune, Pleasure, Reason, Rest, World)
"We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are."
- Honore de Balzac
(Related: Happiness, Misfortune)
"This is the age of insincerity. The movies had the misfortune to come along in the twentieth century, and because they appeal to the masses there can be no sincerity in them."
- Lionel Barrymore
(Related: Age, Movies, Insincerity, Misfortune)
"Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race."
- Pierre Bayle
(Related: History, Nothing, Race)
"The worst sorrows in life are not in its losses and misfortunes, but its fears."
- A. C. Benson
(Related: Life)
"Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others."
- Ambrose Bierce
(Related: Fortune)
"The government's War on Poverty has transformed poverty from a short-term misfortune into a career choice."
- Harry Browne
(Related: War, Government, Career, Choice, Misfortune, Poverty)
"This great misfortune - to be incapable of solitude."
- Jean de la Bruyere
(Related: Misfortune, Solitude)
"All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone."
- Jean de la Bruyere
(Related: Men, Being, Hatred, Spring)
"Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open eyes into their misfortune?"
- Elias Canetti
(Related: People, Decision, Disaster, Eyes, Misfortune, Open)
"My success and my misfortunes, the bright and the dark days I have gone through, everything has proved to me that in this world, either physical or moral, good comes out of evil just as well as evil comes out of good."
- Giacomo Casanova
(Related: Success, Evil, World)
"In such misfortunes my Mother was of an heroic spirit, in suffering patiently when there was no remedy, and being industrious where she thought she could help."
- Margaret Cavendish
(Related: Mother, Thought, Being, Help, Spirit, Suffering)
"Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune."
- Chanakya
(Related: Wife, Friend, Adversity, Difficulty, Duty, Misfortune)
"As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless."
- Lord Chesterfield
(Related: Fathers, Misfortune, Sons)
"Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that every cloud is an angel's face."
- Lydia M. Child
(Related: Soul, Misfortune)
"No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
(Related: Misfortune, Right)
"For a tear is quickly dried, especially when shed for the misfortunes of others."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
"We interest others by the misfortune we spread around us."
- Emile M. Cioran
(Related: Interest, Misfortune)
"It is a misfortune that necessity has induced men to accord greater license to this formidable engine, in order to obtain liberty, than can be borne with less important objects in view; for the press, like fire, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master."
- James F. Cooper
(Related: Men, Fire, Liberty, Misfortune, Necessity, Order, Press)
"Nothing shortens a journey so pleasantly as an account of misfortunes at which the hearer is permitted to laugh."
- Quentin Crisp
(Related: Journey, Nothing)
"Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
- Charles Dickens
(Related: Men, Blessings, Man, Past, Present)
"The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity."
- Benjamin Disraeli
(Related: Calamity, Difference, Misfortune)
"To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete."
- Epictetus
(Related: Education, Want)
"The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool."
- Epicurus
(Related: Fool, Misfortune, Prosperity)
"Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life."
- Epicurus
(Related: Life, Man, Misfortune, Reason)
"In misfortune, which friend remains a friend?"
- Euripides
(Related: Friend, Misfortune)
"Ignorance of one's misfortunes is clear gain."
- Euripides
(Related: Gain, Ignorance)
"Rashness is the faithful, but unhappy parent of misfortune."
- R. Buckminster Fuller
(Related: Misfortune)
"History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind."
- Edward Gibbon
(Related: History, Mankind)
"History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind."
- Edward Gibbon
(Related: History, Mankind)
"It was my fortune, or misfortune, to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous political training."
- Ulysses S. Grant
(Related: Fortune, Misfortune, Office, Training)
"It's the misfortune of German authors that not a single one of them dares to expose his true character. Everyone thinks that he has to be better than he is."
- Franz Grillparzer
(Related: Character, Misfortune)
"I am disposed to be thus particular from the interest you take in our welfare and from the entire confidence I have in your knowing, that you will be sympathetic with us in our misfortunes."
- John Hawley
(Related: Confidence, Interest, Welfare, Will)
"The Unhappy may, possibly, by indulging Thought, hit on some lucky Stratagem for the Relief of his Misfortunes, and the Happy may be infinitely more so by contemplating on his Condition."
- Eliza Haywood
(Related: Thought, May)
"There is one type of ideal woman very seldom described in poetry - the old maid, the woman whom sorrow or misfortune prevents from fulfilling her natural destiny."
- Lafcadio Hearn
(Related: Poetry, Destiny, Misfortune, Old, Sorrow, Woman)
"The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence."
- Herodotus
(Related: Influence, Man, Misfortune)
"No one is to blame. It is neither their fault nor ours. It is the misfortune of being born when a whole world is dying."
- Alexander Herzen
(Related: Being, Blame, Dying, Fault, Misfortune, World)
"Mortals grow swiftly in misfortune."
- Hesiod
(Related: Misfortune)
"Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat."
- Napoleon Hill
(Related: Opportunity, Defeat, Misfortune)
"Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them."
- Washington Irving
(Related: Misfortune)
"The easiest thing to do, whenever you fail, is to put yourself down by blaming your lack of ability for your misfortunes."
- Washington Irving
(Related: Ability)
"Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune."
- William James
(Related: Acceptance, Consequences, First, Misfortune, Overcoming)
"Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune."
- William James
(Related: Acceptance, Consequences, First, Misfortune, Overcoming)
"Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?"
- Thomas Jefferson
(Related: Friendship, Alliance, Name)
"Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it."
- Samuel Johnson
(Related: Man, Misery, Nothing)
"Don Quixote's misfortune is not his imagination, but Sancho Panza."
- Franz Kafka
(Related: Imagination, Misfortune)
"Happiness is composed of misfortunes avoided."
- Alphonse Karr
(Related: Happiness)
"I gather from a lawyer that there was a rehearsal yesterday. We haven't a hope. I know the presiding judge too: I've had the misfortune to sleep with his wife. He was specially picked."
- Alphonse Karr
(Related: Wife, Hope, Misfortune, Sleep, Yesterday)
"I believe that the confidence of Hungary in me is not shaken by misfortune nor broken by my calumniators."
- Lajos Kossuth
(Related: Confidence, Misfortune)
"One of the misfortunes of our time is that in getting rid of false shame we have killed off so much real shame as well."
- Louis Kronenberger
(Related: Time, Shame)
"Only in a popular war against France... do I see a misfortune."
- Ferdinand Lassalle
(Related: War, France, Misfortune, Popular)
"France cannot be destroyed. She is an old country who, despite her misfortunes, has, and always will have, thanks to her past, a tremendous prestige in the world, whatever the fate inflicted upon her."
- Pierre Laval
(Related: Country, Fate, France, Old, Past, Will, World)
"Any beast can cry over the misfortunes of its own child. It takes a mensch to weep for others' children."
- Sam Levenson
(Related: Children)
"Men are slower to recognize blessings than misfortunes."
- Titus Livius
(Related: Men, Blessings)
"Let us be of cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come."
- Amy Lowell
"Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come."
- James Russell Lowell
"A few years' experience will convince us that those things which at the time they happened we regarded as our greatest misfortunes have proved our greatest blessings."
- George Mason
(Related: Experience, Time, Blessings, Will, Years)
"Your dear baby has died innocent and blameless, and has been called away by an all wise and merciful Creator, most probably from a life to misery and misfortune, and most certainly to one of happiness and bliss."
- George Mason
(Related: Happiness, Life, Baby, Misery, Misfortune)
"The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Misfortune, Sight, World)
"Few misfortunes can befall a boy which bring worse consequence than to have a really affectionate mother."
- W. Somerset Maugham
(Related: Mother)
"People don't ever seem to realize that doing what's right is no guarantee against misfortune."
- William McFee
(Related: People, Misfortune, Right)
"Doing what's right is no guarantee against misfortune."
- William McFee
(Related: Misfortune, Right)
"Knowledge is that possession that no misfortune can destroy, no authority can revoke, and no enemy can control. This makes knowledge the greatest of all freedoms."
- Bryant H. McGill
(Related: Knowledge, Control, Authority, Enemy, Misfortune, Possession)
"I now bid farewell to the country of my birth - of my passions - of my death; a country whose misfortunes have invoked my sympathies - whose factions I sought to quell - whose intelligence I prompted to a lofty aim - whose freedom has been my fatal dream."
- Thomas Francis Meagher
(Related: Intelligence, Dream, Death, Birth, Country, Freedom, Now)
"All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing."
- Moliere
(Related: History, Books, Dancing, Leaders, Mankind, Skill)
"My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened."
- Michel de Montaigne
(Related: Life)
"The misfortunes hardest to bear are these which never came."
- Christopher Morley
"The worst misfortune that can happen to an ordinary man is to have an extraordinary father."
- Austin O'Malley
(Related: Father, Man, Misfortune)
"Whether you call my heart affectionate, or you call it womanish: I confess, that to my misfortune, it is soft."
- Ovid
(Related: Heart, Misfortune)
"Much talking is the cause of danger. Silence is the means of avoiding misfortune. The talkative parrot is shut up in a cage. Other birds, without speech, fly freely about."
- Saskya Pandita
(Related: Birds, Cause, Danger, Misfortune, Silence, Speech, Talking)
"The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter."
- Blaise Pascal
(Related: Connection, Misfortune, Prosperity, Weather)
"Fortune knocks but once, but misfortune has much more patience."
- Laurence J. Peter
(Related: Fortune, Misfortune, Patience)
"Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness and much learning, if they be accompanied by a bad training, are a much greater misfortune."
- Plato
(Related: Cleverness, Evil, Ignorance, Learning, Misfortune, Training)
"I am the slave of my baptism. Parents, you have caused my misfortune, and you have caused your own."
- Arthur Rimbaud
(Related: Misfortune, Parents)
"Misfortune was my god."
- Arthur Rimbaud
(Related: God, Misfortune)
"In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something not altogether displeasing to us."
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld
(Related: Friends)
"We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others."
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld
(Related: Strength)
"We are easily comforted for the misfortunes of our friends, when those misfortunes give us an occasion of expressing our affection and solicitude."
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld
(Related: Affection, Friends)
"We are all strong enough to bear other men's misfortunes."
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld
(Related: Men)
"We are strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others."
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld
"All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
(Related: Thought)
"It is not my mode of thought that has caused my misfortunes, but the mode of thought of others."
- Marquis de Sade
(Related: Thought)
"Man's natural character is to imitate; that of the sensitive man is to resemble as closely as possible the person whom he loves. It is only by imitating the vices of others that I have earned my misfortunes."
- Marquis de Sade
(Related: Character, Man, Vices)
"The greatest misfortune of the wise man and the greatest unhappiness of the fool are based upon convention."
- Franz Schubert
(Related: Fool, Man, Misfortune, Unhappiness)
"A man endures misfortune without complaint."
- Franz Schubert
(Related: Complaint, Man, Misfortune)
"Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer."
- Charles de Secondat
(Related: Insult, Misfortune)
"Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes."
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
(Related: Evil, Madness, Nothing)
"How can you expect a man to be brave when he meets with nothing in life but misfortune?"
- Gregorio M. Sierra
(Related: Life, Man, Misfortune, Nothing)
"It is a great evil, as well as a misfortune, to be unable to utter a prompt and decided 'no'."
- Charles Simmons
(Related: Evil, Misfortune)
"Rock 'n Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear."
- Frank Sinatra
(Related: Expression, Misfortune, Ugly)
"If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart."
- Socrates
(Related: People)
"Whoever grows angry amid troubles applies a drug worse than the disease and is a physician unskilled about misfortunes."
- Sophocles
(Related: Disease)
"It is the task of a good man to help those in misfortune."
- Sophocles
(Related: Help, Man, Misfortune)
"How sweet for those faring badly to forget their misfortunes even for a short time."
- Sophocles
(Related: Time, Forget)
"The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes."
- Madame de Stael
(Related: Connection, Existence, Faults, Mystery)
"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm."
- Robert Louis Stevenson
(Related: Fortune, Misfortune, Quiet)
"The swift wind of compromise is a lot more devastating than the sudden jolt of misfortune."
- Charles R. Swindoll
(Related: Compromise, Misfortune, Wind)
"It is a good thing to learn caution from the misfortunes of others."
- Publilius Syrus
(Related: Caution)
"Prosperity is the measure or touchstone of virtue, for it is less difficult to bear misfortune than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure."
- Tacitus
(Related: Virtue, Measure, Misfortune, Pleasure, Prosperity)
"It is less difficult to bear misfortunes than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure."
- Tacitus
(Related: Pleasure)
"It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men."
- Thucydides
(Related: Men, Misfortune)
"Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early."
- Anthony Trollope
(Related: Success, Life, Misfortune)
"Man's great misfortune is that he has no organ, no kind of eyelid or brake, to mask or block a thought, or all thought, when he wants to."
- Paul Valery
(Related: Thought, Man, Misfortune)
"Myself acquainted with misfortune, I learn to help the unfortunate."
- Virgil
(Related: Help, Misfortune)
"Do not yield to misfortunes, but advance more boldly to meet them, as your fortune permits you."
- Virgil
(Related: Fortune, Yield)
"History is only the register of crimes and misfortunes."
- Voltaire
(Related: History)
"Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes."
- Voltaire
(Related: History, Nothing)
"Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us."
- Voltaire
(Related: Life, Power, Harm)
"If we are suffering illness, poverty, or misfortune, we think we shall be satisfied on the day it ceases. But there too, we know it is false; so soon as one has got used to not suffering one wants something else."
- Simone Weil
(Related: Day, Illness, Misfortune, Poverty, Suffering)
"With no matter what human being, taken individually, I always find reasons for concluding that sorrow and misfortune do not suit him; either because he seems too mediocre for anything so great, or, on the contrary, too precious to be destroyed."
- Simone Weil
(Related: Being, Misfortune, Sorrow)
"The War has been waged with success, although there have been in some instances errors and misfortunes. But the heart of the nation is sounder and its hopes brighter."
- Gideon Welles
(Related: War, Success, Heart, Errors, Nation)
"Misfortune had made Lily supple instead of hardening her, and a pliable substance is less easy to break than a stiff one."
- Edith Wharton
(Related: Misfortune)
"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."
- Oscar Wilde
(Related: May, Misfortune)
"The man with the real sense of humor is the man who can put himself in the spectator's place and laugh at his own misfortune."
- Bert Williams
(Related: Humor, Man, Misfortune, Sense)
"In the same proportion Russia is the misfortune of Europe and the Israelites."
- Isaac Mayer Wise
(Related: Europe, Misfortune, Russia)
"One likes people much better when they're battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph."
- Virginia Woolf
(Related: People, Misfortune)
"Unless some misfortune has made it impossible, everyone can have good posture."
- Loretta Young
(Related: Misfortune)
"A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print."
- Marguerite Yourcenar
(Related: Family, Beginning, Misfortune, Writer)
"The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune."
- Peter Nivio Zarlenga
(Related: Man, Measure, Misfortune)
"Only the misfortune of exile can provide the in-depth understanding and the overview into the realities of the world."
- Stefan Zweig
(Related: Misfortune, Understanding, World)