Careful Words

accident (n.)

By many a happy accident.

Thomas Middleton (1580-1627): No Wit, no Help, like a Woman's. Act ii. Sc. 2.

  To what happy accident is it that we owe so unexpected a visit?

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Hermit. Chap. xix.

  I think it a very happy accident.

Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616): Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. lviii.

  The accident of an accident.

Lord Thurlow (1732-1806): Speech in Reply to the Duke of Grafton. Butler's Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 142.