calamity (n.)
- accident
- adversity
- affliction
- bane
- blow
- bugbear
- burden
- casualty
- cataclysm
- catastrophe
- collapse
- collision
- contretemps
- crack-up
- crash
- cross
- curse
- death
- desolation
- destruction
- devastation
- disaster
- disease
- distress
- evil
- fatality
- grief
- grievance
- hardship
- harm
- infliction
- misadventure
- mischance
- misery
- misfortune
- mishap
- nemesis
- pest
- pestilence
- pileup
- plague
- reverse
- ruin
- ruination
- scourge
- shipwreck
- shock
- smash
- thorn
- torment
- tragedy
- trial
- tribulation
- trouble
- vexation
- visitation
- woe
- wreck
- wretchedness
It was a saying of Demetrius Phalereus, that "Men having often abandoned what was visible for the sake of what was uncertain, have not got what they expected, and have lost what they had,—being unfortunate by an enigmatical sort of calamity."
Fortune is not satisfied with inflicting one calamity.
Calamity is man's true touchstone.
Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid.
The play's the thing
Wherein I 'll catch the conscience of the king.
For many, as Cranton tells us, and those very wise men, not now but long ago, have deplored the condition of human nature, esteeming life a punishment, and to be born a man the highest pitch of calamity; this, Aristotle tells us, Silenus declared when he was brought captive to Midas.
