Quotes
Quotes about Circumstance
In all distresses of our friends We first consult our private ends; While Nature, kindly bent to ease us, Points out some circumstance to please us.
Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.
The Bat and the Weasels A BAT who fell upon the ground and was caught by a Weasel pleaded to be spared his life. The Weasel refused, saying that he was by nature the enemy of all birds. The Bat assured him that he was not a bird, but a mouse, and thus was set free. Shortly afterwards the Bat again fell to the ground and was caught by another Weasel, whom he likewise entreated not to eat him. The Weasel said that he had a special hostility to mice. The Bat assured him that he was not a mouse, but a bat, and thus a second time escaped. It is wise to turn circumstances to good account.
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.
The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it, and that which tends most to the perpetuation of society itself. It makes our weakness subservient to our virtue; it grafts benevolence even upon avarice. The possession of family wealth and of the distinction which attends hereditary possessions (as most concerned in it,) are the natural securities for this transmission.
I've learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.
The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves.
A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances.
There is nothing better fitted to delight the reader than change of circumstances and varieties of fortune. [Lat., Nihil est aptius delectationem lectoris quam temporum varietates fortunaeque vicissitudines.]
Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance. It is character which builds an existence out of circumstance. From the same materials one man builds palaces, another hovels; one warehouses, another villas; bricks and mortar are mortar and bricks until the architect can make them something else.
Commemoration of Eglantine Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of 'Save the Children', 1928 I do not wish to imply that God the Son could not, absolutely speaking, have become incarnate by a non-virginal conception, any more than I should wish to deny that God might, absolutely speaking, have redeemed mankind without becoming incarnate at all; it is always unwise to place limits to the power of God. What we can see is that both an incarnation and a virginal conception were thoroughly appropriate to the needs and circumstances of the case and were more "natural", in the sense of more appropriate, than the alternatives... In practice, denial of the virginal conception or inability to see its relevance almost always goes with an inadequate understanding of the Incarnation and of the Christian religion in general.
The massive gates of circumstance Are turned upon the smallest hinge, And thus some seeming pettiest chance Oft gives our life its after-tinge. The trifles of our daily lives, The common things, scarce worth recall, Whereof no visible trace survives, These are the mainsprings after all.
And circumstance, that unspiritual god, And miscreator, makes and helps along Our coming evils, with a critch-like rod, Whose touch turns hope to dust--the dust we all have trod.
Men are the sport of circumstances, when The circumstances seem the sport of men.
I am the very slave of circumstance And impulse--borne away with every breath.
Circumstances beyond my individual control.
Man is not the creature of circumstances, Circumstances are the creatures of men.
It is circumstances (difficulties) which show what men are.
Man, without religion, is the creature of circumstances.
Thus we see, too, in the world that some persons assimilate only what is ugly and evil from the same moral circumstances which supply good and beautiful results--the fragrance of celestial flowers--to the daily life of others.
And I endeavour to subdue circumstances to myself, and not myself to circumstances. [Lat., Et mihi res, non me rebus, subjungere conor.]
What the discordant harmony of circumstances would and could effect. [Lat., Quid velit et possit rerum concordia discors.]
Men's plans should be regulated by the circumstances, not circumstances by the plans. [Lat., Consilia res magis dant hominibus quam homines rebus.]
Man is the creature of circumstances.
Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; Bliss is the same in subject or in king.
