Despair Quotes - Page 27

• Crisis for others is a source of despair. For me, it's an opportunity to bring reform. I owe this country a debt I cannot repay.

  Ashraf Ghani

  Country, Opportunity, Crisis

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• For a shaman, all things considered taboo get ripped apart, and one feels the satisfaction of being freed from agony through vituperation and laughter. Hence, shamanism could be said to have developed a means to tackle and override the barriers, oppression, and despair that tend to obstruct life.

  Hyon Gyon

  Laughter, Mean, Being Free

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• The internet takes a lot of the anxiety of life away. It's a kind of deity. You're never lonely. You're always distracted. If you spend enough time on it, there's not really that nagging sensation of existential despair; it erases it very effectively. And it's monolithic. And thanks to it, we've got the ways to linger there after death - your blog exists afterwards, your e-mail exists afterwards.

  Joshua Ferris

  Lonely, Anxiety, Thanks

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• The middle way is a view of life that avoids the extreme of misguided grasping born of believing there is something we can find, or buy, or cling to that will not change. And it avoids the despair and nihilism born from the mistaken belief that nothing matters, that all is meaningless.

  Unknown

  Believe, Nihilism, Belief

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• I tend to think that we are all pretty much alike. We all feel despair. We all have problems with relationships. We all become afraid. We all look at others and think these other people are more fortunate than us. Certainly the details of our life are unique. Spending time thinking of how I am different from someone else, however, does not tend to be very productive.

  Akhil Sharma

  Unique, Thinking, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• There are times when you are in despair, because in order not to betray who you are, you don't compromise, you don't make movies that would be very lucrative or prestigious or easily understood. And yet I stay attached to the most uncanny premises. It's never been easy.

  Guillermo del Toro

  Compromise, Easy, Betray

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• But human beings fall easily into despair, and from the very beginning we invented stories that enabled us to place our lives in a larger setting, that revealed an underlying pattern, and gave us a sense that, against all the depressing and chaotic evidence to the contrary, life had meaning and value.

  Karen Armstrong

  Depressing, Fall, Stories

  Karen Armstrong (2004). “A Short History Of Myth”, p.2, Canongate Books

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• We've all had that fear, that despair of losing someone, or this fierce desire because it's not reciprocated. The less reciprocation there is, the more desire we have.

  Emmanuelle Beart

  Losing Someone, Desire, Fierce

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

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• If September 11th has taught us anything, it's certainly that the world has never been so interdependent. It is impossible now to be an island of prosperity in a sea of despair.

  Bono

  Islands, Sea, Taught Us

  "The lobbyist rock star", www.cnn.com. April 19, 2004.

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• Poverty breeds despair. We know this. Despair breeds violence. We know this. In turbulent times, isn't it cheaper, and smarter, to make friends out of potential enemies than to defend yourself against them later?

  Bono

  Enemy, Poverty, Violence

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• He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.

  Albert Camus

  Life, Hope, Coward

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• It is often when night looks darkest, it is often before the fever breaks that one senses the gathering momentum for change; when one feels that resurrection of hope in the midst of despair and apathy.

  Hillary Clinton

  Motivational, Night, Gathering

  Hillary Clinton's remarks at the annual anniversary convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Minneapolis, clintonwhitehouse6.archives.gov. July 13, 1995.

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• We can alleviate physical pain, but mental pain - grief, despair, depression, dementia - is less accessible to treatment. It's connected to who we are - our personality, our character, our soul, if you like.

  Richard Eyre

  Pain, Grief, Character

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• I went to Iraq because I wanted to see what one year of occupation had done to Iraqi society, and I went to the West Bank and Gaza Strip because I wanted to see what three generations of occupation had done to Palestinian society. I found a lot more hopelessness and despair in Palestine.

  Michael Franti

  Years, Gaza Strip, Iraq

  "On the Side of the Peacemakers". Interview with Michael Beckel, www.motherjones.com. March 13, 2006.

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• When you get just a complete sense of blackness or void ahead of you, that somehow the future looks an impossible place to be, and the direction you are going seems to have no purpose, there is this word despair which is a very awful thing to feel.

  Stephen Fry

  House, Looks, Purpose

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• When people flirt with despair about the future, they are less likely to take the actions necessary to safeguard it, focusing instead on the short-term.

  Al Gore

  Flirting, People, Action

  "Al Gore, ‘Inconvenient Truth’ Author And Global-Warming Expert, Talks About Change". Interview with Leigh Haber, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 29, 2013.

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• You accept that this civilisation could be abolished and life will begin later on after a few thousand years because that is something that has happened in the history of this planet. When you have peace in yourself and accept, then you are calm enough to do something, but if you are carried by despair there is no hope.

  Nhat Hanh

  Years, Calm, Enough

  "Zen and the art of protecting the planet" by Jo Confino, www.theguardian.com. August 26, 2010.

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• When I'm sitting at the desk not being able to write line one, it's silence and despair! It's not so easy to put the pen to the legal pad or type the first sentence on the computer screen.

  Erica Jong

  Writing, Silence, Sitting

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• Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.

  Franz Kafka

  War, Fate, Hands

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.262, Simon and Schuster

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• American society as a whole can never achieve the outer-reaches of potential, so long as it tolerates the inner cities of despair.

  Jack Kemp

  Cities, Long, Achieve

  "Speakers List:Jack Kemp, Republican Vice Presidential Nominee". www.cnn.com.

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• My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.

  Jack Layton

  Love, Inspirational, Hope

  Jack Layton's Letter to Canadians, www.theglobeandmail.com. August 20, 2011.

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• We have been given God in our souls and Christ in our flesh. We have the power to believe where others deny, to hope where others despair, to love where others hurt.

  Brennan Manning

  Hurt, Believe, Soul

  Brennan Manning (2008). “The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out”, p.17, Multnomah

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• Incumbent White House parties have won 10 of the last 18 presidential elections; the odds are tight, but they favor Obama in 2012. And so gloomy Democrats, check your despair; gleeful Republicans, watch the hubris.

  Jon Meacham

  Party, Odds, White

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• I do believe that most men live lives of quiet desperation. For despair, optimism is the only practical solution. Hope is practical. Because eliminate that and it's pretty scary. Hope at least gives you the option of living.

  Harry Nilsson

  Inspirational, Hope, Believe

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Our Western society is showing its technological muscles in ever more threatening ways, but the experience of fear, anxiety and even despair has increased in equal proportion. Indeed, the paradox is that the powerful giants feel as powerless as a new-born babe.

  Henri Nouwen

  Powerful, Anxiety, Giants

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