Mastodawn

HELEN: When a man broods on a single misfortune and feels the gods are against him, though his suffering is real, it can be borne; but I am crushed by innumerable blows at once.

[ἙΛΈΝΗ: ὅστις μὲν οὖν ἐς μίαν ἀποβλέπων τύχην
πρὸς θεῶν κακοῦται, βαρὺ μέν, οἰστέον δ᾽ ὅμως:
ἡμεῖς δὲ πολλαῖς συμφοραῖς ἐγκείμεθα.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Helen [Ἑλένη], l. 267ff (412 BC) [tr. Vellacott (1954)]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/euripides/78476/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #euripides #bearingup #crises #endurance #misfortune #overwhelmed #problems #troubles

WIST Quotations Aug 11

A quotation from Stephen King

The horror writer always brings bad news: you’re going to die, he says; he’s telling you to never mind Oral Roberts and his “something good is going to happen to you,” because something bad is also going to happen to you, and it may be cancer and it may be a stroke, and it may be a car accident, but it’s going to happen. And he takes your hand and he enfolds it in his own, and he takes you into the room and he puts your hands on the shape under the sheet … and tells you to touch it here … here … and here …

Stephen King (b. 1947) American author
Night Shift, Foreword (1978)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/king-stephen/78294/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #stephenking #badluck #badnews #fiction #horror #misfortune #writing

SPRAVDI - Stratcom Centre Aug 11

The month of August has NOT been kind to Russian oil refineries.

Refineries representing 14% of #Russia's total refining capacity have all found #misfortune.

August 2, 2025
Novokuibyshevsk Refinery – Capacity: 8.8 Mt/year (~3.1% of Russia’s total)

Ryazan Refinery – Capacity: 17.1 Mt/year (~6.1%)

WIST Quotations Aug 8

A quotation from Samuel Johnson

The misery of man proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexations continually repeated.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, “Pope” (1781)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/johnson-samuel/26251…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #samueljohnson #aggravation #evil #humancondition #irritation #misery #misfortune #repetition #unhappiness #vexation #weardown

WIST Quotations Aug 4

A quotation from Victor Hugo

Be like the bird, who
Halting in his flight
On limb too slight
Feels it give way beneath him,
Yet sings
Knowing he hath wings.

[Soyez comme l’oiseau, posé pour un instant
Sur des rameaux trop frêles,
Qui sent ployer la branche et qui chante pourtant,
Sachant qu’il a des ailes!]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Poem (1836), “In the Church of *** [Dans l’eglise de ***],” Songs of Dusk [Les chants du crepuscule], # 33 sec. 6

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/hugo-victor/40547/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #victorhugo #poetry #bird #confidence #danger #heaven #hope #meme #misfortune #optimism #salvation #singing #threat #selfconfidence

WIST Quotations Aug 1

A quotation from La Rochefoucauld

Our minds are better employed in bearing the misfortunes that do befall us than in foreseeing those that may.

[Il vaut mieux employer notre esprit à supporter les infortunes qui nous arrivent qu’à prévoir celles qui nous peuvent arriver.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶174 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #larochefoucauld #concern #facereality #focus #future #meme #misfortune #possibility #present #problemsolving #problems #reality #speculation #troubles #worry #immediacy

WIST Quotations Aug 1

A quotation from Horace

O Fortune, cruellest of heavenly powers,
Why make such game of this poor life of ours?

[Heu, Fortuna, quis est crudelior in nos
Te Deus? Ut semper gaudes illudere rebus
Humanis!]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 2, # 8, “Ut Nasidieni,” l. 61ff (2.8.61-63) (30 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/horace/78146/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #badfortune #badluck #cruelty #fate #fortune #goodfortune #goodluck #humancondition #luck #misfortune

WIST Quotations Jul 18

A quotation from Horace

But like a general, a host displays
his genius best under disaster.

[Sed convivatoris uti ducis ingenium res
Adversae nudare solent, celare secundae.]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Satires [Saturae, Sermones], Book 2, # 8, “Ut Nasidieni,” l. 73ff (2.8.73-74) (30 BC) [tr. Matthews (2002)]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/horace/1956/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #adversity #army #badfortune #badluck #battle #commander #dinner #entertainment #general #gettogether #goodfortune #goodluck #host #misfortune #party #troubles

WIST Quotations Jul 2

A quotation from Marcus Aurelius

Finally, in every event which leads you to sorrow, remember to use this principle: that this is not a misfortune, but that to bear it like a brave man is good fortune.

[μέμνησο λοιπὸν ἐπὶ παντὸς τοῦ εἰς λύπην σε προαγομένου τούτῳ χρῆσθαι τῷ δόγματι: οὐχ ὅτι τοῦτο ἀτύχημα, ἀλλὰ τὸ φέρειν αὐτὸ γενναίως εὐτύχημα.]

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 4, ch. 49 (4.49) (AD 161-180) [tr. Farquharson (1944)]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/1720…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marcusaurelius #marcusaureliusmeditations #accident #backluck #bitterness #courage #distress #endurance #endure #goodfortune #goodluck #misfortune #opportunity #sorrow #stoic #unhappiness

Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 4, ch. 49 (4.49) (AD 161-180) [tr. Farquharson (1944)] - Marcus Aurelius | WIST Quotations

Finally, in every event which leads you to sorrow, remember to use this principle: that this is not a misfortune, but that to bear it like a brave man is good fortune. [μέμνησο λοιπὸν ἐπὶ παντὸς τοῦ εἰς λύπην σε προαγομένου τούτῳ χρῆσθαι τῷ δόγματι: οὐχ ὅτι τοῦτο ἀτύχημα, ἀλλὰ…

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Jun 16

A quotation from John Adams

The Stream of Life sometimes glides smoothly on, through flowry meadows and enamell’d planes. At other times it draggs a winding reluctant Course through offensive Boggs and dismal gloomy Swamps. The same road now leads us thro’ a spacious Country fraught with evry delightful object, Then plunges us at once, into miry Sloughs, or stops our passage with craggy and inaccessible mountains. The free roving Songster of the forest, now rambles unconfin’d, and hopps from Spray to Spray but the next hour perhaps he alights to pick the scattered Grain and is entangled in the Snare. The Ship, which, wafted by a favourable gale, sails prosperously upon the peaceful Surface, by a sudden Change of weather may be tossed by the Tempest, and driven by furious, opposite winds, upon rocks or quicksands. In short nothing in this world enjoys a constant Series of Joy and prosperity.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Diary (1756-03-27)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/adams-john/30195/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #humancondition #struggle #change #difficulty #disaster #fortune #joy #life #metaphor #misfortune #problems #prosperity #troubles #variability

Diary (1756-03-27) - Adams, John | WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations