Calamity is man's true touch-stone.
- Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher,

Calamity is man's true touch-stone.
- Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher,

Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men read more

Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,
Fallen from his high estate,
And welt'ring in his blood;
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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.

It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.

It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.

Rashness brings success to few, misfortune to many.
[Lat., Paucis temeritas est bono, multis malo.]

Rashness brings success to few, misfortune to many.
[Lat., Paucis temeritas est bono, multis malo.]

It has been my misfortune to be engaged in more battles than any other general on the other side of read more

It has been my misfortune to be engaged in more battles than any other general on the other side of the Atlantic; but there was never a time during my command when I would not have chosen some settlement by reason rather than the sword.

Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness read more

Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness and much learning, if they be accompanied by a bad training, are a much greater misfortune.

Whoever has fallen from his former high estate is in his calamity
the scorn even of the base.
read more

Whoever has fallen from his former high estate is in his calamity
the scorn even of the base.
[Lat., Quicumque amisit dignitatem pristinam
Ignavis etiam jocus est in casu gravi.]

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all read more

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some