There are a good many real miseries in life that we cannot help smiling at, but they are the smiles that make wrinkles and not dimples.
This, this is misery! the last, the worst,
That man can feel.
Homer—Iliad. Bk. XXII. L. 106.
trans. Pope's
That to live by one man's will became the cause of all men's misery.
II ne se faut jamais moquer des miserables,
Car qui peut s'assurer d'etre toujours heureux?
We ought never to scoff at the wretched, for
who can be sure of continued happiness?
La Fontaine—Fables. V. 17.
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{{Hoyt quote
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| text = The child of misery, baptized in tears!
J. Langhorne—The Country Justice. Pt. I.
L. 166.
But O yet more miserable!
Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave.
Mn/roN—Samson Agonistes. L. 101.
And bear about the mockery of woe
To midnight dances and the public show.
Frei geht das Ungliick durch die ganze Erde!
Misery travels free through the whole world!
Schiller—Wallenstein's Tod. IV. 11. 31.
Ignis aurum probat, misera fortes viros.
Fire tries gold, misery tries brave men.
Seneca—De Providentia. V.
Miserias properant suas
Audire miseri.
The wretched hasten to hear of their own
miseries.
Seneca—Hercules CEtceus. 754.
Grim and comfortless despair.
Comedy of Errors. V. I. 80.
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| text = <poem>Misery makes sport to mock itself.
Richard II. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 85.
Meagre were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones.
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
Tempest. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 40.
Quaxiue ipse misserrima vidi, et quorum pars magna fui.
All of which misery I saw, part of which I was.
MISFORTUNE
It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.
Calamity is man's true touch-stone.
Conscientia rectae voluntatis maxima consolatio est rerum incommodarum.
The consciousness of good intention is the greatest solace of misfortunes.
He went like one that hath been stunn'd,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man,
He rose the morrow morn.
Coleridge—Ancient Mariner. Pt. VII.
Last Stanza.
Most of our misfortunes are more supportable
than the comments of our friends upon them.
C. C. Colton—Lacon. P. 238.
A raconter ses maux souvent on les soulage.
By speaking of our misfortunes we often
relieve them.
Corneille—Polyeucte. I. 3.
I was a stricken deer that left the herd
Long since.
| author = Cowper
| work = The Task. Bk. III. L. 108.
Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,
And welt'ring in his blood;
Deserted at his utmost need.
By those his former bounty fed;
On the bare earth expos'd he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.
Dryden—Alexander's Feast. L. 77.
Quando la mala ventura se duerme, nadie la
despierte.
When Misfortune is asleep, let no one wake her.
Quoted by Fuller—Gnomologia. (French
proverb has "sorrow" for "Misfortune.
