Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.

Lowell frames adversity as morally and practically neutral: a “mishap” has no fixed meaning until we decide how to meet it. The knife metaphor stresses agency and attitude. If we seize trouble “by the blade”—with resentment, panic, or self-pity—we are harmed further by our own grip. If we take it “by the handle”—with composure, reflection, and constructive action—the same event can become an instrument for learning, resilience, or reform. The aphorism belongs to a long tradition of Stoic-inflected counsel in which the decisive factor is not what happens, but how one responds, turning misfortune into a tool rather than a wound.