#misfortune

Mankind accepts good fortune as his due, but when bad occurs, he thinks it was aimed at him, done to him, a hex, a curse, a punishment by his deity for some transgression, as though his god were a petty storekeeper, counting up the day's receipts. ↗

— Sheri S. Tepper

#curse #destiny #divine-intervention #fate #fortune

Let us be of cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come. ↗

— Amy Lowell

#cheer #come #hardest #let us #misfortunes

People don't ever seem to realize that doing what's right is no guarantee against misfortune. ↗

— William McFee

#doing #ever #guarantee #misfortune #people

Knowledge is that possession that no misfortune can destroy, no authority can revoke, and no enemy can control. This makes knowledge the greatest of all freedoms. ↗

— Bryant H. McGill

#control #destroy #enemy #freedoms #greatest

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it. ↗

— Samuel Johnson

#depend #disagreeable #him #his #man

I gather from a lawyer that there was a rehearsal yesterday. We haven't a hope. I know the presiding judge too: I've had the misfortune to sleep with his wife. He was specially picked. ↗

— Alphonse Karr

#had #haven #his #hope #i

One of the misfortunes of our time is that in getting rid of false shame we have killed off so much real shame as well. ↗

— Louis Kronenberger

#getting #killed #misfortunes #much #off

[I]f the name of wife appears more sacred and more valid, sweeter to me is ever the word friend, or, if thou be not ashamed, concubine ... And thou thyself wert not wholly unmindful of that ... [as in the narrative of thy misfortunes] thou hast not disdained to set forth sundry reasons by which I tried to dissuade thee from our marriage, from an ill-starred bed; but wert silent as to many, in which I preferred love to wedlock, freedom to a bond. I call God to witness, if Augustus, ruling over the whole world, were to deem me worthy of the honour of marriage, and to confirm the whole world to me, to be ruled by me forever, dearer to me and of greater dignity would it seem to be called thy concubine than his empress. ↗

— Héloïse d'Argenteuil

#concubine #devotion #dignity #freedom #honor

I was a lawyer for 10 years, and several of my clients had the misfortune, through no fault of my own, of going to prison. I visited them occasionally. ↗

— John Grisham

#fault #going #had #i #lawyer

All men's misfortunes spring from their hatred of being alone. ↗

— Jean de la Bruyere

#being #being alone #hatred #men #misfortunes