Misfortunes Quotes - Page 34

• Optimism has always seemed to me the cunning alibi of egoists, anxious to cover up their state of chronic self-satisfaction. They are optimists in order to avoid pitying other men and their misfortune. ~~ Yet pity is a vexed question.

  Georges Bernanos

  Men, Self, Order

  Georges Bernanos (1938). “A diary of my times”

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• The greater part of our misfortunes are brought on by neglecting the chances that yesterday gave us.

  James Ellis

  Yesterday, Chance, Neglect

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• Teaching and research are not to be confused with training for a profession. Their greatness and their misfortune is that they are a refuge or a mission.

  Claude Levi-Strauss

  Confused, Teaching, Greatness

  Claude Levi-Strauss (2012). “Tristes Tropiques”, p.59, Penguin

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• One must not try to trick misfortune, but resign oneself to it with good grace.

  Aristophanes

  Adversity, Grace, Trying

  Aristophanes (2012). “The Thesmophoriazusae”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

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• Tis not for us to warn a wilful sinner; We stay him not, but let him run his course, Till by misfortunes rous'd, his conscience wakes, And prompts him to appease th' offended gods.

  Aristophanes

  Running, Courses, Prompts

  Aristophanes, Thomas Mitchell (1822). “The Comedies of Aristophanes: Preface. The clouds. The wasps. The discat turned gentleman”, p.150

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• The root of a nation's misfortunes has to be sought in the moral failings of the government.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Government, Roots, Moral

  "In Quest of Democracy". Essay by Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991.

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• It is my greatest misfortune to be too lazy, and by the few mortifications I have already set with on that account I predict many evils in my future life. I have always the inclination to do what I ought; but by continually procrastinating for tomorrow the business of today, I insensibly delay, until at the end of one month I find myself in the same place as when I began it.

  Washington Allston

  Evil, Lazy, Delay

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• When the day of misfortune comes and (comes it must sooner or later to all )we may be prepared with Christian fortitude to endure the shock.

  Henry Kirke White

  Christian, May, Fortitude

  Henry Kirke White (1824). “The prose remains of Henry Kirke White, of Nottingham, late of St. John's College, Cambridge, containing his letters, essays, and some account of his life”, p.117

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• Whatsoever misfortunes there are Here in this world or in the next, They all have their root in Ignorance And in the accumulation of Longing and Desire.

  Gautama Buddha

  Ignorance, Roots, Desire

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• It is a misfortune to pass at once from observation to conclusion, and to regard both as of equal value; but it befalls many a student.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Students, Observation, Equal

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “Maxims and Reflections”, p.173, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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• Those who have had no share in the good fortunes of the mighty Often have a share in their misfortunes.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Share, Fortune, Good Fortune

  Bertolt Brecht (1975). “Grove Press modern drama: six plays”, Grove Press

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• What a misfortune to be a woman! And yet, the worst misfortune is not to understand what a misfortune it is.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Worst

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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.

  Aristotle

  Crush, Pain, Adversity

  Aristotle (1996). “The Nicomachean Ethics”, p.19, Wordsworth Editions

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• Is it a misfortune that magnificent California was seized from the lazy Mexicans who did not know what to do with it.

  Karl Marx

  California, Lazy, Magnificent

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• An ideology can provide a satisfying narrative that explains chaotic events and collective misfortunes in a way that flatters the virtue and competence of believers, while being vague or conspiratorial enough to withstand skeptical scrutiny.

  Steven Pinker

  Events, Narrative, Way

  "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined". Book by Steven Pinker, www.huffingtonpost.com. 2011.

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• There is merely bad luck in not being loved; there is misfortune in not loving. All of us, today, are dying of this misfortune. For violence and hatred dry up the heart itself; the long fight for justice exhausts the love that nevertheless gave birth to it.

  Albert Camus

  Heart, Fighting, Dry Up

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays”, p.201, Vintage

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• Men take their misfortunes to heart and keep them there.

  Ihara Saikaku

  Heart, Men

  Saikaku Ihara (1958). “Five Japanese Love Stories”, London : Folio Societry

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• In struggling with misfortunes lies the true proof of virtue.

  William Shakespeare

  Lying, Struggle, Fortitude

  William Shakespeare (2001). “Troilus and Cressida”, p.490, Classic Books Company

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• Relief of distress or compassion shown to victims of misfortune.
  A blessing that is an act of Divine compassion.

  Noah Webster

  Blessing, Compassion, Relief

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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.

  Isaac Deutscher

  Fall, Men, Jumping

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• It is not the passion of a mind struggling with misfortune, or the hopelessness of its desires, but of a mind preying on itself, and disgusted with, or indifferent to all other things.

  William Hazlitt

  Struggle, Passion, Mind

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.744, Delphi Classics

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• Many girls have not the advantage I have and I [am] very very glad that satan has not geven me boils and many other Misfortunes.

  Marjorie Fleming

  Girl, Satan, Advantage

  1810 'Journal 2' in F Sidgwick (ed) The Complete Marjory Fleming (1934).

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• It is one of the misfortunes in life that one must read thousands of books only to discover that one need not have read them.

  Thomas de Quincey

  Book, Needs

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• Misfortune is mostly an awkwardness!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Awkwardness

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• All of us are prone to excuse our own mediocre performance. We blame our misfortunes, our disfigurements, our so-called handicaps. Victims of our own rationalization, we say silently to ourselves, 'I'm just too weak,' or 'I'm not cut out for better things.' Others soar beyond our meager accomplishments. Envy and discouragement take their toll. .

  Thomas S. Monson

  Cutting, Accomplishment, Envy

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