Misfortune Quotes

“Chuang-tzu once told a story about two persons who both lost a sheep. One person got very depressed and lost himself in drinking, sex, and gambling to try to forget this misfortune. The other person decided that this would be an excellent chance for him to study the classics and quietly observe the subtleties of nature. Both men experience the same misfortune, but one man lost himself because he was too attached to the experience of loss, while the other found himself because he was able to let go of gain and loss.”
― Liezi, Lieh-tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living

“Of course I'm trying to trick you!" Olaf cried. "That's the way of the world, Baudelaires. Everybody runs around with their secrets and their schemes, trying to outwit everyone else. Ishmael outwitted me, and put me in this cage. But I know how to outwit him and all his islander friends. If you let me out. I can be king of Olaf-land, and you three can be my new henchfolk."
"We don't want to be your henchfolk," Klaus said. "We just want to be safe."
"Nowhere in the world is safe," Count Olaf said.”
― Lemony Snicket, The End

“And it’s not because I’m tortured
Or by some delirium swayed
That I conjure up misfortune:
It is just my trade.”
― Anna Akhmatova, White Flock

“I began to feel lighthearted. Don't ever do that; it tempts some dark and evil force abroad in the universe.”
― Tanith Lee, Biting the Sun

“...it was an intimate bond between the men of that generation ... for nothing brings men close together than a common misfortune happily overcome.”
― Ivo Andrić, The Bridge on the Drina

“Obsessing over something that has jarred your world is called coping.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich, Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year

“For the young, there is nothing unattainable; a good thing desired with the whole force of a passionate will, and yet impossible, is to them not credible. Yet, by death, by illness, by poverty, or by the voice of duty, we must learn, each one of us, that the world was not made for us, and that, however beautiful may be the things we crave, Fate may nevertheless forbid them. It is the part of courage, when misfortune comes, to bear without regretting the ruin of our hopes, to turn away our thoughts from vain regrets. This degree of submission to power is not only just and right: it is the very gate of wisdom.”
― Bertrand Russell

“I'm as lucky as a bed of oysters on cioppino night.”
― Nenia Campbell, Touched with Sight

“Beware! Balance rules the cosmos. It is not concerned with good or bad. You can be struck by misfortune and be buried in grief if that is what it takes to restore the imbalance you have wrought unto the world.”
― Psyche Roxas-Mendoza

“During her life, Veronika had noticed that a lot of people she knew would talk about the horrors in other people's lives as if they were genuinely trying to help them, but the truth was that they took pleasure in the suffering of others, because that made them believe they were happy and that life had been generous with them.”
― Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

“Who you are, how you act and present yourself to others and your deep inner-truths are calling fortune or misfortune into your life right now.”
― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

“And it was at this time that Sir Myles died of his hurt, for it is often so that death and misfortune befall some, whiles others laugh and sing for hope and joy, as though such grievous things as sorrow and death could never happen in the world wherein they live.”
― Howard Pyle, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights

“Whoever said, "I'll give you the world," to their significant other, must have had bad intentions.”
― Anthony Liccione

“According to Islam, whenever we are struck by illness or misfortune or someone hurts us, there is a higher purpose behind it, which we may not understand at the time,’ one of them said to me. ‘That’s where trust comes in. Through suffering, God helps us to better ourselves and make good our mistakes. It is a form of purification and also God’s way of testing the strength of our faith and the goodness of our character.’ Another lady suggested I look on the bright side.

‘Suffering draws us closer to God and that is our aim in life,’ she said. Then she quoted Rumi who had said, ‘It is pain that draws man to his Lord, because when he is well, he doesn’t remember the Lord.’ I tried to look at the positive and believe that there was a higher, spiritual perspective on what I had just been through, and all the advice I was given helped me a lot. But it took quite a while for my heart to catch up with my mind.”
― Kristiane Backer, From MTV to Mecca: How Islam Inspired My Life

“I close my eyes, wondering whether we are ever truly blindsided by misfortune. Or, somehow, somewhere, in the form of empathy or worry or a premonition deep within ourselves, do we feel it coming?”
― Emily Giffin, Heart of the Matter

“When we are rich and famous and powerful, we do not want to die. On the other hand, if we are miserable and suffering, we want to die and leave it all. But can joy or misery last forever? There is a saying, "All celebrations must end sometime." Any wish to live forever or die immediately is often a whim of the moment. How do we know that, although we are happy now, we may not be sad the next day, or sad now but may be happy soon? Given that good and ill, fortune and misfortune come in their own way, we should not cling to life or embrace death. Life and death will come of their own. Why be greedy about life and afraid of death?”
― Liezi, Lieh-tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living

“Pico Mundo is a prosperous town. But no degree of prosperity can be sufficient to eliminate all misfortune, and sloth is impervious to opportunity.”
― Dean Koontz, Forever Odd

“When your chips are down remember they are in God’s hands.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

“There is no reason why an individual, who has the misfortune to become insane, should, on that account, be deprived of any comfort or even luxury...”
― Thomas Story Kirkbride

“In terms of the real quality of a human being, only when suffering comes, when pain comes, does a man stand up as a human being. You can see great human beings surface only when the society is really suffering. When India was under the oppression of British rulers, how many wonderful people stood up? Where are they now? They have just fallen back into their comforts, that's all. All those Ghandis, Patels, Tilaks are still there, but they're dormant. When pain came, they all became alive. They left everything behind and stood up as giants. Where are they now? This is the human misfortune that still there's not enough intelligence in the world that human beings will rise to their peaks when everything is well. They wait for calamities.”
― Jaggi Vasudev, Mystic's Musings

“The fortune that you feel you don't deserve is heaven's compensation for the misfortunes she feels you didn't deserve”
― Agona Apell, The Success Genome Unravelled: Turning men from rot to rock

“A moment comes, and if you wish to look at yourself as human, you must take some kind of action. Otherwise, you can read the newspapers and congratulate yourself on your good fortune.”
― Alan Furst, Dark Star

“There is something beautiful in every person that never dies, no matter their misfortunes.”
― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

“Kiek ašarų buvo išlieta dėl nelaimių, kurios pasidarė realios dėl to, kad buvo norimos.”
― Ernest Hello, Žmogus: gyvenimas, mokslas, menas: D. 1

“And love is two misfortunes which together do an happiness .(Et l’amour, c’est deux malheurs - Qui ensemble font un bonheur)”
― Charles de Leusse

“... in the life of every man there was one great good fortune and one misfortune of equal force.”
― David Rain, The Heat of the Sun

“Rather blessings, after counting my misfortunes, I realized how the more blessed I am.”
― Anthony Liccione

“You stand the risk of misfortunes, because you refused to take risks. So life demands risks.”
― Sunday Adelaja

“Whether fate or fortuitous,
The voyage is incessant.
Life is gratuitous,
It's regrets recrudescent.

We so blindly see adversely,
Linear to some 'decree'.
Sentenced by each other,
To live this critically.

To err is Human,
Ironic that we divest.
For any man who puts that past him,
No misfortunes he has left.”
― Alen Joans

“Acceptance.
Good and bad,
Fortune and misfortune,
Pleasure and pain,
I want it all,
Because it's mine.”
― Innocent Mwatsikesimbe, This Is My Life