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Misfortune quotes

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“There is no greater misfortune than underestimating your enemy.” Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” - 4th century BC

“Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.” Aesop, “Aesop's Fables”

“The happy and the powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of equality among men than poverty and misfortune.” Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America” - 1835

“The pupil dilates in the dark, and the soul dilates in misfortune and ends by finding God there.” Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” - 1862

“You will have many enemies, but even your foes will love you. Life will bring you many misfortunes, but you will find your happiness in them, and will bless life and will make others bless it—which is what matters most.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov” - 1880

“Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1911

“There's only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes.” Haruki Murakami, “Kafka on the Shore” - 2002

“Melancholy in a capitalist, like the appearance of a comet, presages some misfortune to the world.” Alexandre Dumas, “The Count of Monte Cristo” - 1845

“He felt, no doubt, more sorry for her than her indignant relatives; but it seemed to him that the tie between husband and wife, even if breakable in prosperity, should be indissoluble in misfortune.” Edith Wharton, “The Age of Innocence” - 1920

“The truth is that nothing is less sensational than pestilence, and by reason of their very duration great misfortunes are monotonous.” Albert Camus, “The Plague” - 1947

“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest” - 1895

“the overflow of my brain would probably, in a state of freedom, have evaporated in a thousand follies; misfortune is needed to bring to light the treasures of the human intellect. Compression is needed to explode gunpowder.” Alexandre Dumas, “The Count of Monte Cristo” - 1845

“Yea, so it falls, sire, when misfortune comes, The wisest even lose their mother wit.” Sophocles, “Antigone” - c. 441 BC

Related topics

happiness wisdom life marriage God friendship care enemies poverty sincerity freedom fortune wife husband wit action soul melancholy enemy unhappiness

Related authors

Alexandre Dumas (2)
Oscar Wilde (1)
Victor Hugo (1)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1)
Edith Wharton (1)
Alexis de Tocqueville (1)
Sophocles (1)
Ambrose Bierce (1)
Lao Tzu (1)
Albert Camus (1)
Haruki Murakami (1)
Aesop (1)

Related sources

The Count of Monte Cristo (2)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1)
Les Misérables (1)
The Brothers Karamazov (1)
The Age of Innocence (1)
Democracy in America (1)
Antigone (1)
The Devil's Dictionary (1)
Tao Te Ching (1)
The Plague (1)
Aesop's Fables (1)
Kafka on the Shore (1)