Misfortunes Quotes - Page 26

• There are some vile and contemptible men who, allowing themselves to be conquered by misfortune, seek a refuge in death.

  Agathon

  Men, Despair, Refuge

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• Tis the greatest misfortune in nature for a woman to want a confidant.

  George Farquhar

  Women, Want, Confidant

  William. II Congreve William Wycherley (John Vanbrugh and Farquhar George), William. II Wycherley, William Congreve, George Farquhar, John Vanbrugh (1840). “Dramatic Works with Biographical and Critical Notices by Leigh Hunt. - London, Moxon 1840”, p.628

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• A man's usefulness depends on his living up to his ideals insofar as he can. It is hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. All daring and courage, all iron endurance of misfortune, make for a finer, nobler type of manhood. Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Iron, Joy

  Theodore Roosevelt (1955). “Theodore Roosevelt's America: Selections from the Writings of the Oyster Bay Naturalist”

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• On the third day after someone dies, the soul comes back to settle scores. In my mother's case, this would be the first day of the lunar new year. And because it is the new year, all debts must be paid, or disaster and misfortune will follow.

  Amy Tan

  Mother, New Year, Years

  Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.240, Penguin

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• Every man is of importance to himself, and, therefore, in his own opinion, to others; and, supposing the world already acquainted with his pleasures and his pains, is perhaps the first to publish injuries or misfortunes which had never been known unless related by himself, and at which those that hear them will only laugh, for no man sympathises with the sorrows of vanity.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pain, Writing, Men

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The works of the English poets, from Chaucer to Cowper: including the series edited with prefaces, biographical and critical”, p.78

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• The authors of all our misfortune.

  Jefferson Davis

  War, History, Civil War

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• At times like the present, when the evils of unsound finance threaten us, the speculator may anticipate a harvest gathered from the misfortune of others, the capitalist may protect himself by hoarding or may even find profit in the fluctuations of values; but the wage earner - the first to be injured by a depreciated currency and the last to receive the benefit of its correction - is practically defenseless.

  Grover Cleveland

  Wisdom, Evil, Hoarding

  United States. President (1893-1897 : Cleveland), Grover Cleveland (1895*). “Special message, August 8th, 1893. Extract from third annual message, December 2nd, 1895”

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• The wage earner relies upon the ventures of confident and contented capital. This failing him, his condition is without alleviation, for he can neither prey on the misfortune of others nor hoard his labor.

  Grover Cleveland

  Wisdom, Rely Upon, Politics

  United States. President (1893-1897 : Cleveland), Grover Cleveland (1895*). “Special message, August 8th, 1893. Extract from third annual message, December 2nd, 1895”

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• Mortals grow swiftly in misfortune.

  Hesiod

  Literature, Grows, Mortals

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• Misfortune, no less than happiness, inspires us to dream.

  Honore de Balzac

  Dream, Inspire

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• Every man ought to be in love a few times in his life, and to have a smart attack of the fever. You are better for it when it is over: the better for your misfortune, if you endure it with a manly heart; how much the better for success, if you win it and a good wife into the bargain!

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Smart, Heart, Men

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1869). “The Book of Snobs: And, Sketches and Travels in London ; [Character Sketches]”, p.273

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• The death of a man's wife is like cutting down an ancient oak that has long shaded the family mansion. Henceforth the glare of the world, with its cares and vicissitudes falls upon the old widower's heart, and there is nothing to break their force, or shield him from the full weight of misfortune. It is as if his right hand were withered; as if one wing of his angel was broken, and every movement that he made brought him to the ground.

  Alphonse de Lamartine

  Fall, Angel, Heart

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• When I was happy I thought I knew men, but it was fated that I should know them in misfortune only.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Men, Should, Knows

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• The misfortune in the state is, that nobody can enjoy life in peace, but that everybody must govern; and in art, that nobody will enjoy what has been produced, but that every one wants to reproduce on his own account.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Art, Enjoy Life, Want

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Peter Eckermann (2014). “Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann”, p.141, Ravenio Books

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• What men usually say of misfortunes, that they never come alone, may with equal truth be said of good fortune; nay, of other circumstances which gather round us in a harmonious way, whether it arise from a kind of fatality, or that man has the power of attracting to himself things that are mutually related.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, May, Way

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• No amount of misfortune will satisfy the man who is not satisfied
  with reading a hundred epigrams.

  Martial

  Reading, Men, He Man

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• Some dire misfortune to portend, no enemy can match a friend.

  Jonathan Swift

  Friends, Enemy

  Jonathan Swift, “Verses On The Death Of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D.”

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• In misfortune if you cultivate a cheerful disposition you will reap the advantage of it.

  Plautus

  Cheerful, Advantage, Disposition

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• We do not know either unalloyed happiness or unmitigated misfortune. Everything in this world is a tangled yarn; we taste nothing in its purity; we do not remain two moments in the same state. Our affections as well as bodies, are in a perpetual flux.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Change, Two, Yarn

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• Many men, seemingly impelled by fortune, hasten forward to meet misfortune half way.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Men, Way, Half

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• Our greatest misfortunes come to us from ourselves.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Jean Jacques Rousseau (2013). “Emile or Concerning Education”, p.17, Simon and Schuster

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• Some men make a womanish complaint that it is a great misfortune to die before our time. I would ask what time? Is it that of Nature? But she, indeed, has lent us life, as we do a sum of money, only no certain day is fixed for payment. What reason then to complain if she demands it at pleasure, since it was on this condition that you received it.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Death, Men, Demand

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, 1922.

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• Events are never absolute, their outcome depends entirely upon the individual. Misfortune is a stepping stone for a genius, a piscina for a Christian, a treasure for a man of parts, and an abyss for a weakling.

  Honore de Balzac

  Christian, Men, Events

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• With every one, the expectation of a misfortune constitutes a dreadful, punishment. Suffering then assumes the proportions of the unknown, which is the soul's infinite.

  Honore de Balzac

  Punishment, Expectations, Soul

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• All men can bear a familiar, definite misfortune better than the cruel alternations of a fate which, from one moment to another, brings excessive joy or sorrow.

  Honore de Balzac

  Fate, Men, Joy

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