Despair Quotes

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  Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.

  Elie Wiesel

  Life, Remember, Duty

  Nobel Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 11, 1986.

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  When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, God, Disappointment

  Paulo Coelho (2009). “Brida: A Novel”, p.11, Harper Collins

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• Desire, despair, desire. So many monsters.

  Annie Lennox

  Desire, Monsters

  Song: No More "I Love You's", Album: Medusa

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  He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

  Aeschylus

  Inspirational, Sympathy, God

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.

  Rollo May

  Courage, Moving, Absence

  Rollo May (1994). “The Courage to Create”, p.12, W. W. Norton & Company

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  It is necessary to fall in love... if only to provide an alibi for all the random despair you are going to feel anyway.

  Albert Camus

  Falling In Love, Existentialism, Feels

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• Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.

  Charlie Chaplin

  Mind, Indifference, Indifferent

  "Fictional character: Henri Verdoux". "Monsieur Verdoux", www.imdb.com. 1947.

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• I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.

  Joseph Addison

  Sympathy, Indulge In, Giving

  Mr. Joseph Addison, Mr. James Thomson, Nathaniel Lee, William Shakespeare (1730). “A Collection of the Best English Plays, Chosen Out of All the Best Authors..: Vol. III.”, p.62

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• When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Dark, Power, Night

  "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?". Book by Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967.

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• Despair has its own calms.

  Bram Stoker

  Calm

  Bram Stoker, Mort Castle (2014). “Dracula”, p.50, "F+W Media, Inc."

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• Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.

  Franz Kafka

  Health, Literature, Facts

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.258, Simon and Schuster

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• I shall despair. There is no creature loves me;
  And if I die no soul will pity me:
  And wherefore should they, since that I myself
  Find in myself no pity to myself?

  William Shakespeare

  Memorable, Soul, Pity

  'Richard III' (1591) act 5, sc. 3, l. 201

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• Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.

  John Donne

  Joy, Serenity, Heaven

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• I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.

  Alfred Lord Tennyson

  Worry, Action, Withered

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• Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.

  William Cowper

  Love, I Miss You, Missing You

  William Cowper, Robert Southey (1836). “Miscellaneous poems. Olney hymns. Anti-Thelyphthora. Table talk and other poems. Translations from Vincent Bourne”, p.28

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• Action is the antidote to despair.

  Joan Baez

  Inspirational, Motivational, Happiness

  "The Joan Baez 75th Birthday Concert: Four Days Before The Iowa Voting, A Double Shot Of Espresso" by Jesse Kornbluth, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 28, 2016.

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• This book, conceived in sorrow, composed in grief, and constructed at the brink of despair, contains my mind's best thoughts, and my soul's triumph over the powers of darkness.

  Isaac Mayer Wise

  Grief, Book, Soul

  Isaac Mayer Wise (1876). “The Cosmic God: A Fundamental Philosophy in Popular Lectures”

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• Then black despair, The shadow of a starless night, was thrown Over the world in which I moved alone.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Night, Black, Shadow

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (1861). “The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Complete in One Volume”, p.74

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• Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
  Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
  Where there is injury, pardon;
  Where there is doubt, faith;
  Where there is despair, hope;
  Where there is darkness, light;
  And where there is sadness, joy.
  O Divine Master,
  Grant that I may not so much seek
  To be consoled as to console,
  To be understood as to understand,
  To be loved, as to love.

  Francis of Assisi

  Spiritual, Prayer, Sadness

  The Origin of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis, www.franciscan-archive.org.

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• The depth of our despair measures what capability and height of claim we have to hope.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Depth, Height, Claims

  Thomas Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell, Henry Duff Traill (2010). “The Works of Thomas Carlyle”, p.51, Cambridge University Press

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• To exist is a habit I do not despair of acquiring.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Habit

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• Intellectual despair results in neither weakness nor dreams, but in violence. It is only a matter of knowing how to give vent to one's rage; whether one only wants to wander like madmen around prisons, or whether one wants to overturn them.

  Georges Bataille

  Dream, Knowing, Giving

  Georges Bataille (1985). “Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939”, p.24, U of Minnesota Press

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• There is no greater folly in the world than for a man to despair.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Men, Doubt, World

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1855). “The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha: With Illus. by Schoff”, p.384

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• If I were a girl, I'd despair. The supply of good women far exceeds that of the men who deserve them.

  Robert Graves

  Girl, Women, Good Woman

  Robert Graves, Frank L. Kersnowski (1989). “Conversations with Robert Graves”, p.112, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.

  Pope John Paul II

  Depression, God, Spiritual

  "Force of Nature". Book by Dana Mentink (p. 215), December 3, 2013.

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