# Misfortune

Misfortune is bad luck, often in the form of an undesirable event such as an accident.

## Quotes

* Calamity is man's true touch-stone.
** Beaumont and Fletcher, Four Plays in One, The Triumph of Honour (c. 1608–13; published 1647), scene 1, line 67.
* MISFORTUNE, n. The kind of fortune that never misses.
** Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
* He went like one that hath been stunn'd, And is of sense forlorn: A sadder and a wiser man, He rose the morrow morn.
** Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798; 1817), Part VII. Last Stanza.
* I was a stricken deer that left the herd Long since.
** William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book III, line 108.
* Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, Fallen from his high estate, And welt'ring in his blood; Deserted at his utmost need, By those his former bounty fed; On the bare earth expos'd he lies, With not a friend to close his eyes.
** John Dryden, Alexander's Feast (1697), line 77.
* A man may be reputed an able man this year, and yet be a beggar the next; it is a misfortune that happens to many men, and his former reputation will signify nothing.
** Sir John Holt, Reg. v. Swendsen (1702), 14 How. St. Tr. 596.
* There is something very amusing in the misfortunes of others.
** Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Romance and Reality (1831), Vol. I, Chapter 3
* When bad fortune occurs, the unresourceful, unimaginative man looks about him to attach the blame to someone else; the resolute accepts misfortune and endeavors to survive, mature, and improve because of it.
** Anne McCaffrey, Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern (1983)
* Misfortunes cannot suffice to make a fool into an intelligent man.
** Cesare Pavese, This Business of Living, 1938-11-02
* And worse I may be yet: the worst is not So long as we can say "This is the worst."
** Edgar in King Lear (1608) by William Shakespeare, Act IV, scene 1, line 29.
* O, give me thy hand, One writ with me in sour misfortune's book.
** William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (1597), Act V, scene 3, line 81.
* Such a house broke! So noble a master fallen! All gone! and not One friend to take his fortune by the arm, And go along with him.
** William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens (date uncertain, published 1623), Act IV, scene 2, line 5.
* We have seen better days.
** William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens (date uncertain, published 1623), Act IV, scene 2, line 27.
* Misfortune had conquered her, how true it is, that sooner or later the most rebellious must bow beneath the same yoke.
** Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, Corinne (1807), Book XVII, Chapter II.
* None think the great unhappy, but the great.
** Edward Young, Love of Fame (1725-28), Satire.

### Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

    Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 518-19.
* It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.
** Æschylus, Agamemnon, 884 (adapted).
* Conscientia rectæ voluntatis maxima consolatio est rerum incommodarum.
** The consciousness of good intention is the greatest solace of misfortunes.
** Cicero, Epistles, V. 4.
* Most of our misfortunes are more supportable than the comments of our friends upon them.
** Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, p. 238.
* A raconter ses maux souvent on les soulage.
** By speaking of our misfortunes we often relieve them.
** Pierre Corneille, Polyeucte, I. 3.
* Quando la mala ventura se duerme, nadie la despierte.
** When Misfortune is asleep, let no one wake her.
** Quoted by Fuller, Gnomologia. (French proverb has "sorrow" for "Misfortune.").
* But strong of limb And swift of foot misfortune is, and, far Outstripping all, comes first to every land, And there wreaks evil on mankind, which prayers Do afterwards redress.
** Homer, The Iliad, Book IX, line 625. Bryant's translation.
* Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care; Fashioned so slenderly, Young and so fair!
** Thomas Hood, Bridge of Sighs.
* One more unfortunate Weary of breath, Rashly importunate, Gone to her death.
** Thomas Hood, Bridge of Sighs.
* Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.
** James Russell Lowell, Democracy and Addresses, Democracy.
* Suave mari magno, turbantibus æquora ventis E terra magnum alterius spectare laborum.
** It is pleasant, when the sea runs high, to view from land the great distress of another.
** Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, II. 1.
* Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd.
** John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), Book II, line 228.
* Quicumque amisit dignitatem pristinam Ignavis etiam jocus est in casu gravi.
** Whoever has fallen from his former high estate is in his calamity the scorn even of the base.
** Phaedrus, Fables, I. 21. 1.
* Paucis temeritas est bono, multis malo.
** Rashness brings success to few, misfortune to many.
** Phaedrus, Fables, V. 4. 12.
* I never knew any man in my life, who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian.
** Alexander Pope. See Jonathan Swift's Thoughts on Various Subjects.
* As if Misfortune made the Throne her Seat, And none could be unhappy but the Great.
** Nicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent (1703), Prologue, line 3.
* Nihil infelicius eo, cui nihil unquam evenit adversi, non licuit enim illi se experiri.
** There is no one more unfortunate than the man who has never been unfortunate, for it has never been in his power to try himself.
** Seneca the Younger, De Providentia, III.
* Calamitas virtutis occasio est.
** Calamity is virtue's opportunity.
** Seneca the Younger, De Providentia, IV.
* Nil est nec miserius nec stultius quam prætimere. Quæ ista dementia est, malum suum antecedere!
** There is nothing so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes. What madness it is in your expecting evil before it arrives!
** Seneca the Younger, Epistolæ Ad Lucilium, XCVIII.
* Quemcumque miserum videris, hominem scias.
** When you see a man in distress, recognize him as a fellow man.
** Seneca the Younger, Hercules Furens, 463.
* From good to bad, and from bad to worse, From worse unto that is worst of all, And then return to his former fall.
** Edmund Spenser, The Shepherd's Calendar, Feb, line 12.
* Bonum est fugienda adspicere in alieno malo.
** It is good to see in the misfortunes of others what we should avoid.
** Syrus, Maxims.
* I shall not let a sorrow die Until I find the heart of it, Nor let a wordless joy go by Until it talks to me a bit; And the ache my body knows Shall teach me more than to another, I shall look deep at mire and rose Until each one becomes my brother.
** Sara Teasdale, Servitors.
* Hoccin est credibile, aut memorabile, Tanta vecordia innata cuiquam ut siet, Ut malis gaudeant alienis, atque ex incommodis Alterius, sua ut comparent commoda?
** It is to be believed or told that there is such malice in men as to rejoice in misfortunes, and from another's woes to draw delight.
** Terence, Andria, IV. 1. 1.
* Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.
** Yield not to misfortunes, but advance all the more boldly against them.
** Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), VI. 95.
* So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore; The glory from his gray hairs gone For evermore!
** John Greenleaf Whittier, Ichabod.

## See also

* Adversity
* Curses
* Destiny
* Disaster
* Omen
* Suffering