Despair Quotes - Page 7

• Debauchery is perhaps an act of despair in the face of infinity.

  Edmond de Goncourt

  Faces, Infinity, Debauchery

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• The strongest and the fiercest spirit That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair.

  John Milton

  Heaven, Spirit, Strongest

  'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 2, l. 44

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• There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in idleness alone there is perpetual despair.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Work, Men, Calling

  Thomas Carlyle (1872). “Past and Present”, p.168

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• The best I can say is that it's better for me to write about despair and darkness than to be incapable of getting off the sofa. It's better to write about suicide than to contemplate it too heavily.

  Paul Westerberg

  Suicide, Writing, Darkness

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• Despair makes victims sometimes victors.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Sometimes, Desperation, Victim

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• I have been so great a lover: filled my days So proudly with the splendour of Love's praise, The pain, the calm, and the astonishment, Desire illimitable, and silent content, And all dear names men use, to cheat despair, For the perplexed and viewless streams that bear Our hearts at random down the dark of life.

  Rupert Brooke

  Life, Pain, Heart

  Rupert Brooke (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Rupert Brooke (Illustrated)”, p.43, Delphi Classics

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• Nature intended you to be the fountain-spring of cheerfulness and social life, and not the mountain of despair and melancholy.

  Arthur Helps

  Spring, Mountain, Melancholy

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• Finding permanent and universal causes for misfortune is the practice of despair.

  Martin Seligman

  Practice, Causes, Desperation

  Martin Seligman (2011). “Authentic Happiness”, p.86, Nicholas Brealey Publishing

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• A despairing heart is the true prophet of approaching evil; his actions may weave the webs of Fortune, but not break them.

  Francis Quarles

  Heart, Evil, May

  Francis Quarles (1856). “Enchiridion: Containing Institutions Divine Contemplative Practical: Moral Ethical Oeconomical Political”, p.22

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• In their eyes as they pass is not hatred, not excitement, not despair, not the tonic of their victory - there is just the simple expression of being here as though they had been here doing this forever, and nothing else.

  Ernie Pyle

  Eye, Simple, Expression

  Ernie Pyle, David Nichols (1987). “Ernie's war: the best of Ernie Pyle's World War II dispatches”, Touchstone

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• As a general rule, those who are dissatisfied with themselves will seek to go out of themselves into an ideal world. Persons in strong health and spirits, who take plenty of air and exercise, who are "in favor with, their stars," and have a thorough relish of the good things of this life, seldom devote themselves in despair to religion or the muses. Sedentary, nervous, hypochondriacal people, on the contrary, are forced, for want of an appetite for the real and substantial, to look out for a more airy food and speculative comforts.

  William Hazlitt

  Strong, Stars, Real

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• Despair swallows up cowardice.

  William Hazlitt

  Cowardice

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• To tell men that they cannot help themselves is to fling them into recklessness and despair.

  James Anthony Froude

  Men, Helping, Fling

  James Anthony Froude (2004). “Short Studies on Great Subjects”, p.3, The Minerva Group, Inc.

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• Some noble spirits mistake despair for content.

  Nathaniel Parker Willis

  Mistake, Noble, Spirit

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• Even every ray of hope destroyed and not a wish to gild the gloom.

  Robert Burns

  Wish, Rays, Ray Of Hope

  Robert Burns (1859). “The Poetical Works and Letters of Robert Burns. With Life. Eight Engravings on Steel. (In this Edition the More Objectionable Passages and Pieces are Omitted.).”, p.81

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• Above all, we must abolish hope in the heart of man. A calm despair, without angry convulsions, without reproaches to Heaven, is the essence of wisdom.

  Bill Vaughan

  Anger, Heart, Men

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• Despair is infidelity and death.

  John Greenleaf Whittier

  Infidelity

  John Greenleaf Whittier (1854). “Literary recreations and miscellanies”, p.19

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• Misery is complexity. Happiness is simplicity.

  Lester Levenson

  Happiness, Spiritual, Sadness

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• Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.

  Edmund Burke

  Inspiring, Sad, Perseverance

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• Snobbery? But it's only a form of despair.

  Joseph Brodsky

  Form, Snobbery

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• To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.

  John F. Kennedy

  Trust, Past, Giving

  Kennedy, John F. (1962). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961”, p.19, Best Books on

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• Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle. The modern industrial proletariat does not belong to the category of such classes.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Struggle, Class, Evil

  V. I. Lenin (2008). “Lenin on Literature and Art”, p.51, Wildside Press LLC

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• Literature has been the salvation of the damned, literature has inspired and guided lovers, routed despair and can perhaps in this case save the world.

  John Cheever

  Literature, World, Lovers

  "Home before Dark". Book by Susan Cheever, 1984.

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• People are really suffering these days. There's a lot of corporate triumph and a lot of personal despair as they wonder what are they working for.

  Laurie Anderson

  People, Suffering, Triumph

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• Shakespeare was the great one before us. His place was between God and despair.

  Eugene Ionesco

  Great Ones

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