Calamity Quotes

• Often it takes some calamity to make us live in the present. Then suddenly we wake up and see all the mistakes we have made.

  Bill Watterson

  Funny Life, Mistake, Wake Up

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• Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.

  Aristotle

  Beauty, Beautiful, Gratitude

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• It is from the level of calamities, not that of every-day life, that we learn impressive and useful lessons.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Levels, Lessons, Impressive

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• Necessity may well be called the mother of invention but calamity is the test of integrity.

  Samuel Richardson

  Mother, Integrity, May

  Samuel Richardson (1820). “Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life : and Particularly Shewing the Distresses that May Attend the Misconduct Both of Parents and Children, in Relation to Marriage”, p.255

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• Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.

  Sydney Smith

  Courage, Ignorance, Order

  Sydney Smith (1856). “Wit and Wisdom of the Rev. Sydney Smith”, p.198

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• The calamity that comes is never the one we had prepared ourselves for.

  Mark Twain

  Prepared

  Mark Twain (1972). “Everyone's Mark Twain”

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• When any calamity is suffered, the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.

  Samuel Johnson

  Suffering, Tragedy, Firsts

  "Johnsoniana: Or, Supplement to Boswell: Being Anecdotes and Sayings of Dr. Johnson".

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• It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.

  Aeschylus

  Feet, Giving, Advice

  Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides (1956). “The complete Greek tragedies”

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• Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves.

  William Davenant

  Glasses, Perfect, Knows

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• There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice

  Grover Cleveland

  Injustice, Submission, Invites

  Grover Cleveland, United States. President (1885-1889 : Cleveland), United States. President (1893-1897 : Cleveland) (1968). “Grover Cleveland, 1837-1908: chronology, documents, bibliographical aids”

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• Of some calamity we can have no relief but from God alone; and what would men do, in such a case if it were not for God?

  John Tillotson

  Men, Relief, Cases

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• How wisely fate ordain'd for human kind Calamity! which is the perfect glass, Wherein we truly see and know ourselves.

  Bill Vaughan

  Fate, Glasses, Perfect

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• A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Wise, Regret, Lying

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• Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity.

  Samuel Johnson

  Advice, Debt, Inconvenience

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.110

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• Our chief usefulness to humanity rests on our combining power with high purpose. Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity, and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Power, Humanity, Purpose

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.78, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• CALAMITY, n. A more than commonly plain and unmistakable reminder that the affairs of this life are not of our own ordering. Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Life, Two, Kind

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.31, University of Georgia Press

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• No calamity happens to those who eagerly follow auspicious customs and the rule of good conduct, to those who are always careful of purity, and to those who mutter ,sacred texts and offer burnt oblations.

  Guru Nanak

  Sacred, Purity, Careful

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• To me, self-description is a calamity.

  Jasper Johns

  Self Esteem, Self, Description

  "What Does a Jasper Johns Flag Stand For?" by John Seed, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 2, 2017.

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• Know, he that foretells his own calamity, and makes events before they come, twice over, doth endure the pains of evil destiny.

  Bill Vaughan

  Pain, Destiny, Evil

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• We are more disturbed by a calamity which threatens us than by one which has befallen us.

  John Lancaster Spalding

  Disturbed

  John Lancaster Spalding (1899). “Thoughts and Theories of Life and Education”

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• It is only from the belief of the goodness and wisdom of a supreme being, that our calamities can be borne in the manner which becomes a man.

  Henry Mackenzie

  Men, Belief, He Man

  Henry Mackenzie (1815). “The Works of Henry Mackenzie, Esq. ...: The man of feeling, and miscellaneous pieces.-v.II. The man of the world.-v.III. Julia de Roubigné”, p.192

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• It is surely a great calamity for a human being to have no obsessions.

  Robert Bly

  Obsession, Humans, Human Beings

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• Prohibit the taking of omens, and do away with superstitious doubts. Then, until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared.

  Sun Tzu

  War, Doubt, Needs

  Sun Tzu “Sun Tzu: The Art of War (Illustrated)”, Charles River Editors

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• He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.

  Harry Emerson Fosdick

  Love, Courage, Strong

  "The Christian Herald", Vol. 92, p. 72, 1969.

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• Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.

  Joseph Addison

  Honesty, Pain, Integrity

  Joseph Addison (1837). “The Spectator, no. 1-314”, p.251

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