Misfortune

Misfortune is bad luck, often in the form of an undesirable event such as an accident.

Quotes

 * Calamity is man's true touch-stone.
 * Beaumont and Fletcher, Four Plays in One, The Triumph of Honour (c. 1608–13; published 1647), scene 1, line 67.


 * MISFORTUNE, n. The kind of fortune that never misses.
 * Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911).


 * He went like one that hath been stunn'd, And is of sense forlorn: A sadder and a wiser man,  He rose the morrow morn.
 * Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798; 1817), Part VII. Last Stanza.


 * I was a stricken deer that left the herd Long since.
 * William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book III, line 108.


 * 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 (1697), line 77.


 * A man may be reputed an able man this year, and yet be a beggar the next; it is a misfortune that happens to many men, and his former reputation will signify nothing.
 * Sir John Holt, Reg. v. Swendsen (1702), 14 How. St. Tr. 596.


 * There is something very amusing in the misfortunes of others.
 * Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality (1831), Vol. I, Chapter 3


 * When bad fortune occurs, the unresourceful, unimaginative man looks about him to attach the blame to someone else; the resolute accepts misfortune and endeavors to survive, mature, and improve because of it.
 * Anne McCaffrey,  (1983)


 * Misfortunes cannot suffice to make a fool into an intelligent man.
 * Cesare Pavese, This Business of Living, 1938-11-02


 * And worse I may be yet: the worst is not So long as we can say "This is the worst."
 * Edgar in King Lear (1608) by William Shakespeare, Act IV, scene 1, line 29.


 * O, give me thy hand, One writ with me in sour misfortune's book.
 * William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act V, scene 3, line 81.


 * Such a house broke! So noble a master fallen! All gone! and not One friend to take his fortune by the arm, And go along with him.
 * William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens (date uncertain, published 1623), Act IV, scene 2, line 5.


 * We have seen better days.
 * William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens (date uncertain, published 1623), Act IV, scene 2, line 27.


 * Misfortune had conquered her, how true it is, that sooner or later the most rebellious must bow beneath the same yoke.
 * Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, Corinne (1807), Book XVII, Chapter II.


 * None think the great unhappy, but the great.
 * Edward Young, Love of Fame (1725-28), Satire.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

 * Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 518-19.


 * It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.
 * Æschylus, Agamemnon, 884 (adapted).


 * Conscientia rectæ voluntatis maxima consolatio est rerum incommodarum.
 * The consciousness of good intention is the greatest solace of misfortunes.
 * Cicero, Epistles, V. 4.


 * Most of our misfortunes are more supportable than the comments of our friends upon them.
 * Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, p. 238.


 * A raconter ses maux souvent on les soulage.
 * By speaking of our misfortunes we often relieve them.
 * Pierre Corneille, Polyeucte, I. 3.


 * Quando la mala ventura se duerme, nadie la despierte.
 * When Misfortune is asleep, let no one wake her.
 * Quoted by Fuller, Gnomologia. (French proverb has "sorrow" for "Misfortune.").


 * 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, Book IX, line 625. Bryant's translation.


 * Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care; Fashioned so slenderly,  Young and so fair!
 * Thomas Hood, Bridge of Sighs.


 * One more unfortunate Weary of breath, Rashly importunate,  Gone to her death.
 * Thomas Hood, Bridge of Sighs.


 * 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, Democracy.


 * Suave mari magno, turbantibus æquora ventis E terra magnum alterius spectare laborum.
 * It is pleasant, when the sea runs high, to view from land the great distress of another.
 * Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, II. 1.


 * Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd.
 * John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), Book II, line 228.


 * Quicumque amisit dignitatem pristinam Ignavis etiam jocus est in casu gravi.
 * Whoever has fallen from his former high estate is in his calamity the scorn even of the base.
 * Phaedrus, Fables, I. 21. 1.


 * Paucis temeritas est bono, multis malo.
 * Rashness brings success to few, misfortune to many.
 * Phaedrus, Fables, V. 4. 12.


 * I never knew any man in my life, who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian.
 * Alexander Pope. See Jonathan Swift's Thoughts on Various Subjects.


 * As if Misfortune made the Throne her Seat, And none could be unhappy but the Great.
 * Nicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent (1703), Prologue, line 3.


 * Nihil infelicius eo, cui nihil unquam evenit adversi, non licuit enim illi se experiri.
 * There is no one more unfortunate than the man who has never been unfortunate, for it has never been in his power to try himself.
 * Seneca the Younger, De Providentia, III.


 * Calamitas virtutis occasio est.
 * Calamity is virtue's opportunity.
 * Seneca the Younger, De Providentia, IV.


 * Nil est nec miserius nec stultius quam prætimere. Quæ ista dementia est, malum suum antecedere!
 * There is nothing so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness it is in your expecting evil before it arrives!
 * Seneca the Younger, Epistolæ Ad Lucilium, XCVIII.


 * Quemcumque miserum videris, hominem scias.
 * When you see a man in distress, recognize him as a fellow man.
 * Seneca the Younger, Hercules Furens, 463.


 * From good to bad, and from bad to worse, From worse unto that is worst of all, And then return to his former fall.
 * Edmund Spenser, The Shepherd's Calendar, Feb, line 12.


 * Bonum est fugienda adspicere in alieno malo.
 * It is good to see in the misfortunes of others what we should avoid.
 * Syrus, Maxims.


 * I shall not let a sorrow die Until I find the heart of it, Nor let a wordless joy go by Until it talks to me a bit; And the ache my body knows Shall teach me more than to another, I shall look deep at mire and rose  Until each one becomes my brother.
 * Sara Teasdale, Servitors.


 * Hoccin est credibile, aut memorabile, Tanta vecordia innata cuiquam ut siet, Ut malis gaudeant alienis, atque ex incommodis Alterius, sua ut comparent commoda?
 * It is to be believed or told that there is such malice in men as to rejoice in misfortunes, and from another's woes to draw delight.
 * Terence, Andria, IV. 1. 1.


 * Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.
 * Yield not to misfortunes, but advance all the more boldly against them.
 * Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), VI. 95.


 * So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore; The glory from his gray hairs gone  For evermore!
 * John Greenleaf Whittier, Ichabod.