60 phrases on misfortune to reflect on

A compilation of reflections to enhance resilience and overcome bad times.

In this compilation of phrases about misfortune you will find reflections of authors and historical characters as important as William Shakespeare, Confucius or Ruben Dario.

60 phrases of misfortune

The fear to avoid falling into their domains is so great that sometimes that fear can lead us to make wrong decisions. And is that misfortune, or fear of it, always lurks if it becomes one of our obsessions and we do not know how to manage our expectations well.

Below you will find a selection of phrases of misfortune that will help you to reflect on those adverse moments.

1. It is curious how distant a misfortune is when it does not concern us personally (John Steinbeck).

This phrase of misfortune brings us closer to that disengagement that people feel with respect to other people going through distressing situations.

2. Undeserved honor is the preamble to misfortune (Han Shan)

Expectations can turn into disappointments.

3. Unhappy is he who is considered unfortunate (Seneca)

A phrase of Seneca on the suggestion and induction towards sadness.

4. Doom does not weigh upon a man every time he does something; but it weighs upon him unless he does something (Gilbert Keith Chesterton).

For Chesterton, it is a matter of responsibility.

5. By speaking of our misfortunes we alleviate them (Pierre Corneille)

Talking diminishes the pain.

6. The wretched man has no medicine but hope (William Shakespeare)

A medicine that often does not come or is not real.

7. There is nothing more excused and even lost than for the wretch to tell his misfortunes to the one whose chest is full of happiness (Miguel de Cervantes).

Little can be expected from such a situation.

8. Because it is by touching bottom, even if it is in bitterness and degradation, that one comes to know who he is, and where then he begins to tread firmly (José Luis Sampedro).

When we reach the depths of an adverse situation.

9. There are many people who get into the habit of being unhappy (George Eliot)

Sometimes we do everything we can to make ourselves unhappy, making bad decisions.(George Eliot) Sometimes we do everything we can to make ourselves unhappy by making bad decisions.

10. Isn't it sad to consider that only misfortune makes men brothers (Benito Perez Galdos).

For Pérez Galdos, brotherhood must always be lived.

11. When misfortune comes, it never comes alone, but in battalions (William Shakespeare)

It often happens that a situation triggers a worse one.

12. Enough misfortune and enough confinement means living on an island (Abilio Estévez)

A phrase of this Cuban writer referring to the political situation of his country.

13. The greatest misfortune is to deserve misfortune (Jean de La Fontaine)

There are people who believe they deserve to go through adversity.

14. Men in misfortune do not attract crowds, but curious people (Francisco Martín Moreno).

People who can waste your time or your mental health.

15. Misfortune is the closest bond of hearts (Jean de La Fontaine).

It opens a vulnerable and sensitive situation and makes it easy to contact others in a more honest and intimate way.

In misfortunes we must remember the state of conformity with which we look at the misfortunes of others (Epictetus of Phrygia).

The philosopher Epictetus tries to make us reflect on the level of empathy reflect on the level of empathy that we can have with others..

17. Those that are lost are greater misfortunes (Pedro Calderón de la Barca)

The size of the penalty is measured according to their value.

18. Lying down in the midst of misfortune, the soul sees much (Sophocles)

When by a stroke of reality we become aware of many things.

19. A man is the sum of his misfortunes One might believe that unhappiness will one day tire itself out, but then it is time that becomes our unhappiness (William Faulkner).

An interesting reflection by Faulker.

20. Misfortune is the midwife of virtues (Louis de Jaucourt)

Virtues are forged in misfortune.

21. Only misfortune can turn a Heart of rock into a human heart (Fénelon).

The power of misfortune has a transforming effect.

22. Misfortune reveals to the soul lights that prosperity fails to perceive (Blaise Pascal).

It shows the side that we rarely discover.

23. There is only one true misfortune for man: to incur a fault and to have a reason to censure himself (Jean de la Bruyere)

Jean de la Bruyere's phrase of unhappiness, on the self-concept.

24. When you are in trouble, people are afraid of getting infected... Misfortune is contagious (Katherine Pancol)

It is for that reason that in difficult times many people walk alone.

25. Most of our misfortunes are more bearable than the comments our friends make about them (Charles Caleb Colton).

Sometimes disappointment comes in other forms.

26. Misfortune, by attaching itself to me, taught me little by little another religion, different from the religion taught by men.

In misfortune is found a new spirituality.

27. The most unfortunate are those who cry the least (Jean-Baptiste Racine).

About not being able to express their emotions freely.

28. That head that proudly wears its misfortune, like a king wears his crown (Carlo Bini )

This phrase is for people who relapse into misfortune.

29. The most dreaded misfortunes are, ordinarily, those that never come (James Russell Lowell).

For Lowell this type of misfortunes are the ones that produce the greatest anxiety in us..

30. It is not good to be unhappy, but it is good to have been unhappy (Antoine Gombaud)

Because one can learn many lessons so as not to repeat them.

31. In life, the saddest thing is not to be completely unhappy, it is that we lack very little to be happy and we cannot achieve it (Jacinto Benavente).

On not being able to complete our happiness.

32. To know the things that make one unhappy is already a kind of happiness (François de La Rochefoucauld).

Even more so if we avoid them.

33. If you do not want to be unhappy, treat catastrophes as annoyances, but by no means treat annoyances as catastrophes (André Maurois).

It is necessary to know how to approach and to face appropriately every difficult situation.

34. Misfortune is a dead end. It leads directly to the wall. If you want to get rid of it, walk away from it with your back turned. This way you will believe that it will retreat while you face it (Yasmina Khadra).

For Khadea it is important to know how to deal with misfortune.

35. The most unfortunate of all men is the one who thinks he is unfortunate (Fénelon).

When we pigeonhole ourselves in a single posture.

36. Man can bear misfortunes that are accidental and come from without, But to suffer for one's own faults, that is the nightmare of life (Oscar Wilde).

An Oscar Wilde's phrase of misfortune will always be an honest reflection.

37. The ruined man reads his condition in the eyes of others so quickly that he himself feels his downfall (William Shakespeare).

When we project our experience on the other.

38. Misfortune is also necessary to discover certain mysterious mines hidden in human intelligence (Alexandre Dumas).

In all the circumstances of life we learn something.

39. My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened.

When you live inside a lie and even worse when they have had an effect on you.

40. Abhor the mouths that predict eternal misfortunes.

For Rubén Darío, we must avoid playing with the future.

41. (...) All the misfortunes of the world were born of the many lies, those told on purpose, but also the unintentional ones, caused by haste or inaccuracy (Michael Ende).

An interesting reflection by Ende about what can make us happy or unhappy.

42. Misfortunes, like fortune, only come when we have sought them with our actions (Confucius).

Everything has a consequence, and misfortune is one of them.

43. Small minds are tamed and subjugated by misfortune, while great minds overcome it (Washington Irving).

This phrase of misfortune can encourage a person who is going through a very difficult situation.

44. For greater misfortunes keep the fortune to whom it favors (Seneca)

It is a way to achieve security.

45. Even misfortune tires (Seneca)

Nothing lasts forever.

46. Unforeseen misfortune hurts us more strongly (Seneca)

When we are not prepared for difficult moments.

47. Everyone is as he is, and he already has enough misfortune (José Luis Coll).

On the particular individualities of each human experience.

48. Light is the misfortune that can be suffered, and that which is not, brief (Seneca).

A way of differentiating misfortune.

There is no misfortune that lacks a remedy (Seneca).

Every misfortune has a solution.

50. Misfortunes are of no use to those who do not learn from them (Seneca).

Misfortune can be converted into something useful and constructive, we must take advantage of it.

51. Time makes misfortunes bearable (Seneca)

Whether it is due to carelessness or to training.

52. Misfortune is capable of opening the eyes even of the blind. It is a teacher who knows much, and a friend who does not deceive, like happiness (Ventura Ruiz Aguilera).

Misfortune brings us back to reality with all its nuances.

53. Certain men have the talent to see much in everything. But they have the misfortune to see everything that is not there, and nothing of what is there (Jaime Balmes).

It is a question of perspective.

54. He who laughs last at the misfortune of others, laughs best (Roberto Fontanarrosa).

Humor will always be an intelligent way to deal with such situations.

55. How was the star of misfortune illuminated in your life, which has a faint light, as you writers would say (Sergio Ramirez).

Ramirez approaches misfortune in a poetic way.

56. Misfortune seldom comes alone (John Dryden)

He also appends several other elusive events.

57. There is no greater sorrow than to remember happy times in misfortune (Dante Alighieri)

Longing for happy memories that make us feel unhappy.

58. Death always knows how to connect vice with misfortune (Jindrich Styrsky)

An aphorism about the vices that accumulate until they lead us to a situation in which there is no turning back.

Do not laugh at a person in his misfortune (Quilon of Sparta).

It is the lowest expression of humanity that we can have.

60. Every creature in misfortune has the same right to be protected (Francis of Assisi)

St. Francis of Assisi was known for always showing mercy to animals.