Misfortunes Quotes - Page 22

• Kings have long arms, but Misfortune longer: let none think themselves out of her reach.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Kings, Thinking, Long

  Benjamin Franklin (2007). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.17, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• That abominable and sensual act called reading the newspaper, thanks to which all the misfortunes and cataclysms in the universe over the last twenty-four hours, the battles which cost the lives of fifty-thousand men, the murders, the strikes, the bankruptcies, the fires, the poisonings, the suicides, the divorces, the cruel emotions of statesmen and actors, are transformed for us, who don't even care, into a morning treat, blending in wonderfully, in a particularly exciting and tonic way, with the recommended ingestion of a few sips of cafe au lait.

  Marcel Proust

  Suicide, Morning, Reading

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• It is one of the misfortunes of our political system that parties are formed more with reference to controversies that are gone by than to the controversies which these parties have actually to decide.

  Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

  Party, Political, Gone

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• There is no greater fortune than having few concerns, no greater misfortune than having many worries. Only those who have suffered over their concerns know the blessing of having few concerns. Only those who have calmed their minds know the misfortune of having many worries.

  Zicheng Hong

  Blessing, Worry, Mind

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• I change my direction, I can't even help it. It's sort of like the fortune and misfortune of being a rapper.

  Doseone

  Rapper, Helping, Fortune

  "Doseone" by Chris Dahlen, pitchfork.com. March 6, 2005.

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• It's one thing to be a high achiever; it's quite another to privately sneer at your girlfriend's friends after feigning friendliness because they have the "misfortune" to drive a bus for a living.

  Mallory Ortberg

  Girlfriend, Bus, Achiever

  "I Think She's in Love". Live chat, www.slate.com. February 2, 2016.

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• The twisty nature of psychic attack - are you being attacked, or did you bring this attack on yourself? - speaks to me of an American cultural paradox we all grapple with. There's the rampant litigiousness of our society, and the desire to blame others for our misfortunes.

  Heidi Julavits

  Psychics, Desire, Our Society

  "The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Heidi Julavits". Interview with Angela Stubbs, therumpus.net. October 14, 2012.

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• From personal experience, I completely agree that it is often easier to go for monotone sadness. When I was starting out, I wrote a gazillion short stories that ran the gamut of human suffering - drug addiction, child abuse, terminal illness, loved ones dying by all manner of misfortune, etc. In hindsight, it's clear that I mistook the power of the situation for the power of the story.

  Anthony Marra

  Children, Sadness, Addiction

  Source: therumpus.net

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• The man who procrastinates is always struggling with misfortunes.

  Hesiod

  Struggle, Men, He Man

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• Men are themselves the source of their own fortune and misfortune.

  Leon Battista Alberti

  Men, Source, Fortune

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• There is within me a friend who consoles me every time that troubles overwhelm me and misfortunes afflict me. The man who does not feel friendship towards himself is a public enemy, and he who finds no confidant within himself will die of despair. For life streams out of man's inner self and in no way from what surrounds him.

  Khalil Gibran

  Men, Self, Enemy

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• If slavery, barbarism and desolation are to be called peace, men can have no worse misfortune.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Men, Slavery, Desolation

  "Political Treatise" by Baruch Spinoza, translated by A. H. Gosset, (Ch. 6), 1883.

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• The intimacy which is contracted in infancy, and friendship which is formed in misfortune, are, of all others, the most lasting and unalterable.

  Thomas Paine

  Intimacy, Infancy, Lasting

  Thomas Paine (2015). “Common Sense: and The American Crisis I”, p.37, Penguin

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• As long as you can savor the humorous aspect of misery and misfortune, you can overcome anything.

  John Candy

  Humorous, Long, Overcoming

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• Small minds are subdued by misfortunes, greater minds overcome them.

  Washington Irving

  Mind, Overcoming, Greater

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• What man ever blamed himself for his misfortune?

  William Graham Sumner

  Men

  William Graham Sumner (2007). “The Forgotten Man and Other Essays”, p.490, Cosimo, Inc.

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• One of man's greatest failings is that he looks almost always for an excuse, in the misfortune that befalls him through his own fault, before looking for a remedy-which means he often finds the remedy too late.

  Jean Francois Paul de Gondi

  Mean, Men, Looks

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• America is the only advanced industrial democracy where people can get sick and languish because they can't afford care. Or where people are blocked in access to the system because they don't have access to insurance, which is only available through certain narrow portals and under certain very restricted conditions. We're the only society that hasn't embraced this idea that no one should go without access to these services, regardless of their financial condition. And no one should be saddled with a lifetime of debt because they have the misfortune of falling ill.

  Glenn Loury

  Fall, People, Sick

  Source: bigthink.com

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• It seems to me, Monsieur, that there is nothing more galling in great physical misfortunes than to be compelled to make all those about us share in our sufferings. The ills of the soul one can hide, but those which attack the body and destroy the faculties cannot be concealed.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Soul, Suffering, Body

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• I believe, indeed, that it is more laudable to suffer great misfortunes than to do great things.

  Stanisław I Leszczyński

  Believe, Suffering, Great Things

  François duc de La Rochefoucauld, Stanisław I Leszczyński (King of Poland) (1851). “Moral Reflections, Sentences and Maxims of Francis, Duc de la Rochefoucauld”, p.156

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• Happiness, like misfortunes, never comes alone.

  Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sevigne

  Happiness

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• Ah! I shall repeat it endlessly, the only misfortune is to be born!

  Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du Deffand

  Born, Repeats

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• Surprises are like misfortunes or herrings - they rarely come single.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Surprise, Herring

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1831). “Romance and Reality”, p.296

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• There are so many people who make their fortunes of the misfortunes of others. I don't know if it's because the world is too damn crowded, or what, but it's something that I've been noticing for awhile.

  Michael Shannon

  People, World, Fortune

  Source: collider.com

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• Misfortunes, in fine, cannot be avoided; but they may be sweetened, if not overcome, and our lives made happy by philosophy.

  Seneca the Younger

  Philosophy, Overcoming, May

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