“Our worst misfortunes never happen, and most miseries lie in anticipation.”

“My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.”

“Our greatest fears lie in anticipation.”

“that you would not anticipate misery since the evils you dread as coming upon you may perhaps never reach you at least they are not yet come Thus some things torture us more than they ought, some before they ought and some which ought never to torture us at all. We heighten our pain either by presupposing a cause or anticipation”

“Most of our misfortunes are more supportable than the comments of our friends upon them.”

“Then he reflected that reality does not usually coincide with our anticipation of it; with a logic of his own he inferred that to forsee a circumstantial detail is to prevent its happening. Trusting in this weak magic, he invented, so that they would not happen, the most gruesome details.”