“It is a natural propensity to attribute misfortune to someone's malignity.”

“It is a characteristic of the weak and criminal to attribute to others the misfortunes that are the result of their own wickedness.”

“Unable to attribute misfortune to chance, unable to accept their ultimate insignificance within the greater scheme, the people looked for monsters in their midst.”

“Politicians do not find any attractions in a view which does not lend itself to party declamation, and ordinary mortals prefer views which attribute misfortune to the machinations of their enemies.”

“Misfortune is a fact of nature acceptable to women, especially when it falls on other women.”

“There are people who from early on reveal a great talent for misfortune. Unhappiness pummels at them like a stoning, every other day, and they accept it with a resigned sigh. Others, meanwhile, have a peculiar propensity for the happiness. Faced with an abyss the latter are attracted by its blueness, the former by its intoxication.”