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Misfortunes Quotes

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Misfortunes Quotes

“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”

LooksHappinessFightingPassionCoursesStruggleDoubtMiseryTemptationComparisonMisfortunesStabilityNew WorldSpectacularGlamourInstabilityGood FightBrave New WorldLooking For HappinessBrave New World HappinessBrave New World FreedomBrave New World CharacterBrave New World TechnologyBrave New World LeninaBrave New World ConsumerismBrave New World John
Book:The Collected Works of Aldous Huxley: Brave new world
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“Every reiteration of the idea that _nothing matters_ debases the human spirit. Every reiteration of the idea that there is no drama in modern life, there is only dramatization, that there is no tragedy, there is only unexplained misfortune, debases us. It denies what we know to be true. In denying what we know, we are as a nation which cannot remember its dreams--like an unhappy person who cannot remember his dreams and so denies that he does dream, and denies that there are such things as dreams.”

KnowsHumansPersonsDoeIdeasDreamRememberSpiritNationsModernDramaTragedyDenyUnhappyBeing TrueMisfortunesHuman SpiritModern LifeUnexplainedUnhappy PersonNo Drama
Book:Writing in restaurants
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“Holding this book in your hand, sinking back in your soft armchair, you will say to yourself: perhaps it will amuse me. And after you have read this story of great misfortunes, you will no doubt dine well, blaming the author for your own insensitivity, accusing him of wild exaggeration and flights of fancy. But rest assured: this tragedy is not a fiction. All is true.”

WellsBookStoriesHandsFictionDoubtTragedyBlameFlightFancyNo DoubtMisfortunesAssuredExaggerationSinkingDineAccusingArmchairsInsensitivity
Author:Honore de Balzac
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“There is a determined though unseen bravery that defends itself foot by foot in the darkness against the fatal invasions of necessity and dishonesty. Noble and mysterious triumphs that no eye sees, and no fame rewards, and no flourish of triumph salutes. Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields that have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes.”

SometimesEyePovertyDarknessGreaterFeetHeroFameBraveryRewardsDeterminedNobleMysteriousTriumphIsolationMisfortunesObscureUnseenAbandonmentInvasionDishonestyBattlefieldsSalute
Book:Les Misérables
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“People who have only good experiences aren't very interesting. They may be content, and happy after a fashion, but they aren't very deep. It may seem a misfortune now, and it makes things difficult, but well--it's easy to feel all the happy, simple stuff. Not that happiness is necessarily simple. But I don't think you're going to have a life like that, and I think you'll be the better for it. The difficult thing is to not be overwhelmed by the bad patches. You must not let them defeat you. You must see them as a gift--a cruel gift, but a gift nonetheless.”

PeopleThinkingLifeFeelsWellsMaySeemsEasyStuffDifficultSimpleInterestingFashionDefeatMisfortunesHappy LifeOverwhelmedLife And LoveVery InterestingPatchesDifficult ThingsVery DeepGood Experiences
Author:Peter Cameron
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“Consider the black widow spider. It's a timid little beastie, useful and, for my taste, the prettiest of the arachnids, with its shiny, patent-leather finish and its red hourglass trademark. But the poor thing has the fatal misfortune of possessing enormously too much power for its size. So everybody kills it on sight.”

LittlesBlackPoorPowerToo MuchTasteRedSightSizeMisfortunesSpidersLeatherWidowsPossessingPatentsPrettiestTrademarksBlack WidowToo Much PowerHourglass
Book:Stranger in a Strange Land
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“Desperate? So what? I'm desperate, too!" Fenoglio snapped at her. "My story is foundering in misfortune, and these hands here," he said holding them out to her, "don't want to write anymore! I'm afraid of words Meggie! 'Once they were like honey, now they're poison, pure poison! But what is a writer who doesn't love words anymore? What have I come to? This story is devouring me, crushing me, and I'm it's creator!”

WantWritingSaidStoriesHandsPureCreatorPoisonCrushDesperateMisfortunesHoneyDevouring
Author:Cornelia Funke
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“Do not pursue what is illusory - property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is 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.”

InspirationalLastsNightForeverPositionSweetPropertyDecadesPursueBitterCupsExpensesNervesMisfortunesSteadySuperiorityIllusoryGulags
Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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“The great majority of us are required to live a constant, systematic duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected by it if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, you grovel before what you dislike and rejoice at what bring brings you nothing but misfortune. Our nervous system isn’t just a fiction, it’s part of our physical body, and our soul exists in space and is inside us, like teeth in our mouth. It can’t be forever violated with impunity.”

IfsLifeFeelsSoulBodySpaceFictionForeverMouthsOppositesMajorityConstantBoundsTeethNervousAffectedMisfortunesDislikeRejoiceSystematicNervous SystemImpunityPhysical BodyDuplicity
Author:Boris Pasternak
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“Can human nature ever be wholly and radically transformed? Can the man whom God made good be made wicked by man? Can the soul be reshaped in its entirety by destiny and made evil because destiny is evil? Can the heart become misshapen and afflicted with ugly, incurable deformities under disproportionate misfortune, like a spinal column bent beneath a too low roof?”

MenHumansHeartMadeSoulEvilDestinyHuman NatureLowsUglyWickedMisfortunesTransformedRoofBentColumnsEntiretyDeformity
Author:Victor Hugo
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“My misfortune is doubly painful to me because it will result in my being misunderstood. For me there can be no recreation in the company of others, no intelligent conversation, no exchange of information with peers; only the most pressing needs can make me venture into society. I am obliged to live like an outcast.”

NeedsResultsCompanyInformationConversationIntelligentPainfulMisfortunesPeersVentureMisunderstoodObligedRecreationOutcastBeing MisunderstoodIntelligent Conversation
Author:Ludwig van Beethoven
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“A writer - and, I believe, generally all persons - must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.”

ThinkingFeelsWritingBelieveMayPersonsHas BeensArtHappensPurposeArtistGivenI BelieveMaterialsShapesResourcesAll ThingsIncludingMisfortunesHumiliationClayEmbarrassmentWhatever HappensRaw MaterialsPurpose Of ArtCreating Beauty
Author:Jorge Luis Borges
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“If you participate in life, you don’t see it clearly: you suffer from it too much or enjoy it too much. The artist, to my way of thinking, is a monstrosity, something outside nature. All the misfortunes Providence inflicts on him come from his stubborness in denying that maxim.”

IfsThinkingWayArtistSufferingEnjoyToo MuchMy WayMisfortunesProvidenceMaximsWay Of ThinkingMonstrosity
Book:The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857
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“She was heartily ashamed of her ignorance - a misplaced shame. Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well−informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.”

PeopleIfsShouldMindWellsPersonsWishKnowingIgnoranceShameIgnorantVanityAshamedMisfortunesSensibleInabilityMisplaced
Author:Jane Austen
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“But Gregor understood easily that it was not only consideration for him which prevented their moving, for he could easily have been transported in a suitable crate with a few air holes; what mainly prevented the family from moving was their complete hopelessness and the thought that they had been struck by a misfortune as none of their relatives and acquaintances had ever been hit.”

Has BeensMovingAirUnderstoodHolesConsiderationMisfortunesHopelessnessAcquaintanceSuitable
Book:The Metamorphosis
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“A person who sets his or her mind on the dark side of life, who lives over and over the misfortunes and disappointments of the past, prays for similar misfortunes and disappointments in the future. If you will see nothing but ill luck in the future, you are praying for such ill luck and will surely get it. (Prentice Mulford)”

IfsMindPersonsPastSidesDarkPrayingLuckIllDisappointmentMisfortunesDark SideSecret Law Of Attraction
Book:The Secret
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