MISFORTUNE
Addison, Joseph
The humor of turning every misfortune into a judgment, proceeds from wrong notions of religion, which, in its own nature, produces good will toward men, and puts the mildest construction upon every accident that befalls them. In this case, therefore, it is not religion that sours a man's temper, but it is his temper that sours his religion.
A soul exasperated by its ills, falls out with everything, with its friend and itself.
Alcott, Amos Bronson
Our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure.
Aristophanes
Evil events come from evil causes; and what we suffer, springs, generally from what we have done.
Balzac, Honore de
After all, our worst misfortunes never happen, and most miseries lie in anticipation.
We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never either so wretched or so happy as we say we are.
Misfortune makes of certain souls a vast desert through which rings the voice of God.
Bias
The greatest misfortune of all is, not to be able to bear misfortune.
Blessington, Marguerite
Heaven sends us misfortunes as a moral tonic.
Bunyan, John
He that is down needs fear no fall.
Chaucer, Geoffrey
Of fortune's sharp adversity, the worst kind of misfortune is this, that a man hath been in prosperity and it remembers when it passed is.
Child, Mrs. Lydia M.
Every man deems that he has precisely the trials and temptations which are the hardest of all others for him to bear; but they are so, simply because they are the very ones he most needs.
Colton, Caleb C.
Rats and conquerors must expect no mercy in misfortune.
Most of our misfortunes are more supportable than the comments of our friends upon them.
Dewey, Orville
The less we parade our misfortunes, the more sympathy we command.
Eliot, George
There is a chill air surrounding those who are down in the world, and people are glad to get away from them, as from a cold room.
Goldsmith, Oliver
Ovid finely compares a man of broken fortune to a falling column; the lower it sinks, the greater weight it is obliged to sustain.
By struggling with misfortunes, we are sure to receive some wounds in the conflict; but a sure method to come off victorious is by running away.
Guizot, Francois Pierre
The effect of great and inevitable misfortune is, to elevate those souls which it does not deprive of all virtue.
Havard, William
Misfortune does not always wait on vice; nor is success the constant guest of virtue.
Irving, Washington
Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.
Jerome, Saint
Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that in every cloud is an angel's face.
Johnson, Samuel
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 mention of it.
Lowell, James Russell
Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen.
Mallet, David
Who hath not known ill-fortune, never knew himself, or his own virtue.
Mather, Cotton
The injuries of life, if rightly improved, will be to us as the strokes of the statuary on his marble, forming us to a more beautiful shape, and making us fitter to adorn the heavenly temple.
Melmoth, William
We should learn, by reflecting on the misfortunes of others, that there is nothing singular in those which befall ourelves.
Mowalt, Anna C.
Misfortune sprinkles ashes on the head of the man, but falls like dew on the head of the woman, and brings forth germs of strength of which she herself had no conscious possession.
Napoleon I
When I was happy I thought I knew men, but it was fated that I should know them only in misfortune.
Pope, Alexander
I never knew a man who could not bear the misfortunes of another perfectly like a Christian.
Richer, Henri
What Cicero said of men, "that they are like wines, age souring the bad, and bettering the good," we can say of misfortune, that it has the same effect upon them.
Richter, Jean Paul
Flowers never emit so sweet and strong a fragrance as before a storm. When a storm approaches thee, be as fragrant as a sweet-smelling flower.
Shakespeare, William
Men shut their doors against the setting sun.
Shenstone, William
When misfortunes happen to such as dissent from us in matters of religion, we call them judgments; when to those of our own sect, we call them trials; when to persons neither way distinguished, we are content to attribute them to the settled course of things.
Smiles, Samuel
It will generally be found that men who are constantly lamenting their ill luck, are only reaping the consequences of their own neglect, mismanagement, and improvidence, or want of application.
Socrates
If all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into a public stock, in order to be equally distributed among the whole species, those who now think themselves the most unhappy would prefer the share they are already possessed of before that which would fall to them by such a division.
Taylor, Jeremy
It is seldom that God sends such calamities upon man as men bring upon themselves and suffer willingly.
Tennyson, Alfred Lord
Sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things.
