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Misfortunes Quotes

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MenIfsPeopleFortuneMayWorldMisfortunes Of OthersMindShouldSufferingAdversityKnowsThinkingSoulBearsHas BeensHumansEvilFeelsWayPersonsGreaterHeartLuckMadeHappensWellsDoeWantFallFateInspirationalMomentsGood FortuneMiseryAcceptingGivingHelpingPleasureRealSaidJoyLifeWarBookLiteratureLittlesMeanCharacterChildrenFirstsKindWisdomBlameBornCausesCrimeDespairFailingPovertyVirtueWiseWorstAbleAdvantageArtBelieveBlessingChristianFaultsLightMatterPainStatesStrongWould BeEndureEnemyFactsFearFormHandsHe ManLosesLyingMankindOpportunityOrderPityRealityReasonSorrowSpiritAgeCareConsequenceCoursesDisasterEnoughForcemore

Misfortunes Quotes

“We ought, in humanity, no more to despise a man for the misfortunes of the mind than for those of the body, when they are such as he cannot help; were this thoroughly considered we should no more laugh at a man for having his brains cracked than for having his head broke.”

MenShouldMindHelpingBodyHumanityBrainLaughingOughtBrokeMisfortunesDespiseCracked
Book:The works of Alexander Pope. With a selection of explanatory notes, and the account of his life by dr. Johnson
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“Antoninus diffused order and tranquility over the greatest part of the earth. His reign is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history; which is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.”

LittlesEarthOrderHistoryMankindCrimeMaterialsAdvantageFollyMisfortunesReignTranquilityRegisterRoman Empire
Book:The Modern Library Essential World History 4-Book Bundle: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged); Montcalm and Wolfe; History of the Conquest of Mexico; The Naval War of 1812
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“The simple circumstantial narrative (did such a narrative exist) of the ruin of a single town, of the misfortunes of a single family, might exhibit an interesting and instructive picture of human manners; but the tedious repetition of vague and declamatory complaints would fatigue the attention of the most patient reader.”

HumansMightSimpleInterestingAttentionHistoryReaderTownsPatientRuinsMannersNarrativeMisfortunesVagueComplaintsRepetitionFatigueExhibitsTediousRoman Empire
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“The brutal soldiers satisfied their sensual appetites without consulting either the inclination or the duties of their female captives; and a nice question of casuistry was seriously agitated, Whether those tender victims, who had inflexibly refused their consent to the violation which they sustained, had lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of virginity. There were other losses indeed of a more substantial kind and more general concern.”

KindLostLossHistoryNiceDutyConcernFemaleVictimSoldierSatisfiedSensualGloriousMisfortunesAppetiteCrownsBrutalConsentInclinationViolationVirginityRoman EmpireCaptivesConsulting
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“Great and frequent reverses can crush and mar our bliss both by the pain they cause and by the hindrance they offer to many activities. Yet nevertheless even in adversity nobility shines through, when a man endures repeated and severe misfortune with patience, not owing to insensibility but from generosity and greatness of soul.”

MenSoulPainCausesGreatnessOffersActivityAdversityShiningEndureGenerosityBlissCrushMisfortunesReverseNeverthelessMarsSevereNobilityHindranceOwingInsensibility
Book:The Nicomachean ethics
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“A man once jumped from the top floor of a burning house in which many members of his family had already perished. He managed to save his life; but as he was falling he hit a person standing down below and broke that person's legs and arms. The jumping man had no choice; yet to the man with the broken limbs he was the cause of his misfortune. If both behaved rationally, they would not become enemies.”

IfsMenPersonsChoicesFallHouseCausesEnemyHe ManBrokenArmsMembersStandingLegsBurningBrokeMisfortunesJumpingLimbsBurning HouseStanding Down
Author:Isaac Deutscher
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“The age was still dark and reeked of the havoc and misfortunes of the Goths who had put all good literature to destruction. But, by God's goodness, in my time light and dignity were returned to letters, and I see there such improvement that today I would have great difficulty being admitted to the most elementary classes--I, who in my time was reputed to be (and not wrongly) to be the most knowledgeable person of the century.”

PersonsStillsLightAgeTodayLiteratureDarkEducationClassKnowledgeCenturyGoodnessDignityLettersDestructionDifficultyImprovementMy TimeMisfortunesKnowledgeableGothHavocGood LiteratureKnowledgeable Person
Author:Francois Rabelais
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“You will find the most pronounced hatred of other nations on the lowest cultural levels. There is, though, a level where the hatred disappears completely and where one so to speak stands above the nations and where one experiences fortune or misfortune of a neighboring country as if they had happened to one's own.”

IfsCountrySpeakNationsLevelsHappenedHatredFortuneDisappearNationalismMisfortunesLowestInternationalismDisappear Completely
Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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“If those millions squandered on designing missionaries had been deposited in funds for the support of yourselves, when old age, misfortune, or sickness (from which none are exempt,) overtakes you, or for the distressed of your race, what a heaven of happiness you would have created on earth: ye would now be an ornament to your sex, and ages to come would call you blessed. But it is in vain to try - a priest-ridden female is lost to reason. Why? because she has surrendered her reason to the ... missionaries ... the orthodox; they are the grand deceivers.”

IfsTryingReasonAgeEarthLostHeavenSexRaceMillionsSupportAtheismDesignFemaleBlessedPositive AtheismOld AgeVainReason WhySicknessFundPriestsOrthodoxMisfortunesOrnamentsDeceiver
Author:Anne Royall
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“... But all the feelings that evoke in us the joy or the misfortune of a real person are only produced in us through the intermediary of an image of that joy or that misfortune; the ingeniousness of the first novelist was in understanding that, in the apparatus of our emotions, since the image is the only essential element, the simplification which consists of purely and simply suppressing the factual characters is a definitive improvement.”

FirstsPersonsRealCharacterFeelingsJoyUnderstandingEmotionFictionEssentialsElementsImprovementNovelistsMisfortunesEvokeFactualReal PersonSimplificationSuppressing
Author:Marcel Proust
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“Those who wander in the world avowedly and purposely in pursuit of happiness, who view every scene of present joy with an eye to what may succeed, certainly are more liable to disappointment, misfortune and unhappiness, than those who give up their fate to chance and take the goods and evils of fortune as they come, without making happiness their study, or misery their foresight.”

WorldGivingMayEyeHappinessJoyEvilChanceViewsStudyFateSceneSucceedGiving UpMiseryFortuneDisappointmentPursuitWanderGoodsUnhappinessMisfortunesPursuit Of HappinessForesightLiable
Book:Complete Works of Frances Burney (Delphi Classics)
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“It is the fate of most men who mingle with the world, and attain even the prime of life, to make many real friends, and lose them in the course of nature. It is the fate of all authors or chroniclers to create imaginary friends, and lose them in the course of art. Nor is this the full extent of their misfortunes; for they are required to furnish an account of them besides.”

MenWorldArtRealCoursesLosesFateAccountsPrimeMisfortunesImaginaryReal FriendsImaginary FriendPrime Of Life
Book:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, Volume 2 (of 2) (Illustrations)
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