Misfortune Quotes - page 2

To remedy the frequent distresses of the common people, the poor laws of England have been instituted; but it is to be feared that though they may have alleviated a little the intensity of individual misfortune, they have spread the general evil over a much larger surface. (Thomas Malthus)
When I feel overwhelmed by misfortune, the greatest joy that the Lord can give me is to go to the altar, to put my forehead against it (as on the day of my ordination to the priesthood), and to feel the presence of the only reality. Not only does calm return, but my body seems to be annihilated; the only true life begins, the life of that which is intangible. View quote
Leonid Feodorov
Moreover, nothing is so rare as to see misfortune fairly portrayed; the tendency is either to treat the unfortunate person as though catastrophe were his natural vocation, or to ignore the effects of misfortune on the soul, to assume, that is, that the soul can suffer and remain unmarked by it, can fail, in fact, to be recast in misfortune's image. View quote
Simone Weil
Even the word depression itself was the terminological product of an effort to soften the connotation of deep trouble. In the last century, the term crisis was normally employed. With time, however, this acquired the connotation of the misfortune it described. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
A big book is a big misfortune. View quote
Callimachus
Fire tries gold, misfortune tries brave men. View quote
Seneca
Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament. It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man A splendid slave, a reasoning savage. View quote
Joseph Addison
I've always thought tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune. Do you understand what I'm saying? View quote
Lois McMaster Bujold
On the third day after someone dies, the soul comes back to settle scores. In my mother's case, this would be the first day of the lunar new year. And because it is the new year, all debts must be paid, or disaster and misfortune will follow. View quote
Amy Tan
Convinced that character is all and circumstances nothing, [the Puritan] sees in the poverty of those who fall by the way, not a misfortune to be pitied and relieved, but a moral failing to be condemned, and in riches, not an object of suspicion ... but the blessing which rewards the triumph of energy and will. View quote
R. H. Tawney
It is a misfortune of the times that all of us must needs be amateur economists-including, and perhaps especially, the professionals. (Benjamin Graham)
Optimism has always seemed to me the cunning alibi of egoists, anxious to cover up their state of chronic self-satisfaction. They are optimists in order to avoid pitying other men and their misfortune. ~~ Yet pity is a vexed question. View quote
Georges Bernanos
An evil nature wielding great authority brings misfortune upon the community. View quote
Aeschines
It is a great misfortune to be alone, my friends; and it must be believed that solitude can quickly destroy reason. View quote
Jules Verne
Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade and can be confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life - don't be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn after happiness; it is after all, all the same: the bitter doesn't last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. View quote
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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. View quote
Albert Camus
There is only misfortune in not being loved there is misery in not loving. View quote
Albert Camus
[Prudence] replaces [strength] by saving the man who has the misfortune of not possessing it from most occasions when it's needed. View quote
Nicolas Chamfort
she thought it was the misfortune of poetry, to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoyed it completely; and that the strong feelings which alone could estimate it truly, were the very feelings which ought to taste it but sparingly. View quote
Jane Austen
A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault. View quote
Walter Bagehot
Rock 'n Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear. (Frank Sinatra)
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. View quote
Aeschylus
It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men. View quote
Thucydides
Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that every cloud is an angel's face. 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. View quote
Lydia Maria Child
The pupil dilates in darkness and in the end finds light, just as the soul dilates in misfortune and in the end finds God. View quote
Victor Hugo