It is the Law that any difficulties that can come to you at any time, no matter what they are, must be exactly what you need most at the moment, to enable you to take the next step forward by overcoming them. The only real misfortune, the only real tragedy, comes when we suffer without learning the lesson.
There were moments when I hated everybody I came across, innocent or guilty, and looked at them as thieves who were robbing me of my life with impunity. The most unbearable misfortune is when you yourself become unjust, malignant, vile; you realize it, you even reproach yourself - but you just can't help it.
Adversity is the touchstone of character: it is not in success but in misfortune that hidden powers bear fruit.
The provision of health care facilities must be accepted as a social responsibility. It is not that an individual who has the misfortune to be inflicted with some particular disease is solely responsible for searching the facilities to cure his illness. This is a social responsibility which is accepted by governments all over the world. This is part and parcel of the organization of individuals into societies. It is a measure of the degree of civilization.
The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid.
Losing faith is a complicated business and takes time. There are no epiphanies, no "moments of truth. " It takes much thought and concentration in the later phases, which thenselves come about through an accumulation of small accidents: examples of general injustice, misfortune falling upon the godly, prayers of one's own unanswered.
To have a right estimate of a man's character, we must see him in misfortune.
. . . But all the feelings that evoke in us the joy or the misfortune of a real person are only produced in us through the intermediary of an image of that joy or that misfortune; the ingeniousness of the first novelist was in understanding that, in the apparatus of our emotions, since the image is the only essential element, the simplification which consists of purely and simply suppressing the factual characters is a definitive improvement.
Thus we see that the lot of the duck hunter is not a happy one. He is the child of frustration, the collector of mishap, the victim of misfortune. He suffers from cold and wet and lack of sleep. He is punished more often than rewarded. Yet he continues. Why? Because one great day-- and great days do come, days when the ducks are willing and the gun swings true-- repays him many fold for all the others.
No one step back, that is the idea. . . . Fight it out, whatever comes. Let the stars move from the sphere! Let the whole world stand against us!. . . . What of it? Thus fight! You gain nothing by becoming cowards. . . . Taking a step backward, you do not avoid any misfortune.
Misfortune is the best fortune. Rejection by all is victory.
Don’t you know that you are all my life to me?. . . But peace I do not know, and can’t give to you. My whole being, my love. . . yes! I cannot think about you and about myself separately. You and I are one to me. And I do not see before us the possibility of peace either for me or for you. I see the possibility of despair, misfortune. . . or of happiness-what happiness!. . . Is it impossible?" Vronksy
There are some vile and contemptible men who, allowing themselves to be conquered by misfortune, seek a refuge in death.
The world is quickly bored by the recital of misfortune, and willing avoids the sight of distress.
When I got to college, the fake ID thing wasn't that important, since pretty much everyone could get away with drinking in New Orleans. But the drugs, well, that was a different story altogether, because drugs are every bit as illegal in New Orleans as anywhere else--at least, if you're black and poor, and have the misfortune of doing your drugs somewhere other than the dorms at Tulane University. But if you are lucky enough to be living at Tulane, which is a pretty white place, especially contrasted with the city where it's located, which is 65 percent black, then you are absolutely set.
It is no small misfortune and disgrace that, through our own fault, we neither understand our nature nor our origin.
No misfortune is worse than underestimating the enemy. Underestimating the enemy, I risk losing my treasure.
This misfortune you find is of your own manufacture.
Unable to attribute misfortune to chance, unable to accept their ultimate insignificance within the greater scheme, the people looked for monsters in their midst.
Misfortune had made Lily supple instead of hardening her, and a pliable substance is less easy to break than a stiff one.