Despair Quotes - Page 34

• The small seed of despair cracks open and sends experimental tendrils upward to the fragile skin of calm holding him together.

  Judith Guest

  Skins, Together, Cracks

  Judith Guest (1982). “Ordinary People”, p.2, Penguin

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• Let us not cease to do the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments.

  John Calvin

  Motivational, Accomplishment, May

  John Calvin, Henry Van Andel (2004). “Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life”, p.23, Baker Books

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• A friend came to visit James Joyce one day and found the great man sprawled across his writing desk in a posture of utter despair. James, what’s wrong?' the friend asked. 'Is it the work?' Joyce indicated assent without even raising his head to look at his friend. Of course it was the work; isn’t it always? How many words did you get today?' the friend pursued. Joyce (still in despair, still sprawled facedown on his desk): 'Seven.' Seven? But James… that’s good, at least for you.' Yes,' Joyce said, finally looking up. 'I suppose it is… but I don’t know what order they go in!

  Stephen King

  Writing, Men, Order

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• . . . maybe that's what life's all about: there's a lof of despair, but also the odd moments of beauty, where time is no longer the same . . . [like] something suspended . . . an elsewhere . . . an always within a never. Yes, that's is, an always within a never.

  Muriel Barbery

  Odd, Moments, Elsewhere

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• He thought that it was loneliness which he was trying to escape and not himself. But the street ran on: catlike, one place was the same as another to him. But in none of them could he be quiet. But the street ran on in its moods and phases, always empty: he might have seen himself as in numberless avatars, in silence, doomed with motion, driven by the courage of flagged and spurred despair; by the despair of courage whose opportunities had to be flagged and spurred.

  William Faulkner

  Loneliness, Opportunity, Silence

  William Faulkner (1985). “Novels, 1930-1935”, Library of America

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• After a while, though, even the deepest sorrow faltered, even the most penetrating despair lost its scalpel edge.

  Richard Matheson

  Feeling Sad, Sorrow, Lost

  Richard Matheson (1954). “I Am Legend”, Greenwich, Connecticut : Fawcett

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• But he hated to be sober. It made him conscious of the people around him, of that air of struggle, of greedy ambition, of hope more sordid than despair, of incessant passage up or down.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Memories, Struggle, Ambition

  "The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald".

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• At the time, I didn't have the insight to wonder at the transient nature of despair, but now that I'm older I've seen how little it takes to turn a person's life around for better or worse. An event will do, or an Idea. Another person. An idea of a person.

  Meg Rosoff

  Ideas, Events, Littles

  Meg Rosoff (2008). “What I Was”, p.35, Penguin UK

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• We have to heal our wounded world. The chaos, despair, and senseless destruction we see today are a result of the alienation that people feel from each other and their environment.

  Michael Jackson

  Healing, People, World

  "Michael Jackson, death by showbusiness" by Mick Brown, www.telegraph.co.uk. June 27, 2009.

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• Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.

  Blaise Pascal

  Jesus, Pride, Knowing

  Blaise Pascal (1966). “Pascal Pensées”, Penguin Classics

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• It requires courage not to surrender oneself to the ingenious or compassionate counsels of despair that would induce a man to eliminate himself from the ranks of the living; but it does not follow from this that every huckster who is fattened and nourished in self-confidence has more courage than the man who yielded to despair.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Courage, Self Confidence, Men

  "The Concept of Irony: With Constant Reference to Socrates". Book by Søren Kierkegaard, Collins, "Irony as a Mastered Moment: The Truth of Irony," pt. 2, 1966.

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• I tell the kids that, even in a childhood marked by despair and deprivation, I knew that no matter what happened, I still had my family, or at least the remnants of a family ripped apart by divorce and then glued back together in various odd arrangements through a series of ill- advised remarriages. It was good to know I had a solid foundation.

  Bill Bryson

  Kids, Divorce, Childhood

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• He who hears the rippling of rivers in these degenerate days will not utterly despair.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Nature, Rivers, Degenerates

  Henry David Thoreau, Carl Hovde (1980). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.334, Princeton University Press

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• I am of the opinion, and even more so the older I get, that it is more difficult to have hope than it is to despair. And I mean this in the sense that in order to have hope you must acknowledge the despair and then you have to get beyond it. Taken from a radio interview given on BBC Radio 4's Open Book

  Colum McCann

  Book, Taken, Mean

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• It is almost as if happiness is an acquired taste, like coconut cordial or ceviche, to which you can eventually become accustomed, but despair is something surprising each time you encounter it.

  Daniel Handler

  Happiness, Acquired Taste, Encounters

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• Before you realize this truth, say the Yogis, you will always be in despair, a notion nicely expressed in this exasperated line from the Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus: 'You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Greek, Lines, Bears

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.118, A&C Black

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• I wanted to tell her not to entertain despair like this. Despaire wasn't a guest, you didn't play its favorite music, find it a comfortable chair. Despair was the enemy." -white oleander

  Janet Fitch

  Play, White, Enemy

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• What baffles me is the comfort people find in the idea that somebody dealt this mess. Blind and meaningless chance seems to me so much more congenial - or at least less horrible. Prove to me that there is a God and I will really begin to despair.

  Peter De Vries

  Ideas, People, Comfort

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• Don't let despair mutate your flesh Look at my twisted stumps of thought See the fingers, listen to the voice I am slowly becoming the end of the line.

  Henry Rollins

  Voice, Looks, Lines

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• I am talking about ultimate deceit. I am talking about unparalleled treachery. Bottomless lies. Depths that are seen that are previously unimaginable. Darkness and shattering despair that could break bones. Paranoia and horror that could stop the heart cold. All inflicted on one's self by one's self. The soul turns schizophrenic and goes hopelessly insane.

  Henry Rollins

  Lying, Heart, Self

  Henry Rollins (1992). “Art to choke hearts ; & Pissing in the gene pool: collected writing 1985-1987”, 2 13 61

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• Those who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  God, Atheist, Believe

  Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art”, p.30, Convergent Books

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• Don’t you know that you are all my life to me? ...But peace I do not know, and can’t give to you. My whole being, my love...yes! I cannot think about you and about myself separately. You and I are one to me. And I do not see before us the possibility of peace either for me or for you. I see the possibility of despair, misfortune...or of happiness-what happiness!...Is it impossible?" Vronksy

  Leo Tolstoy

  Thinking, Giving, Impossible

  Leo Tolstoy (2016). “ANNA KARENINA – Two Unabridged Translations in One Premium Edition (World Classics Series): The Greatest Romantic Tragedy of All Times from the Renowned Author of War and Peace & The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Including Biographies of the Author)”, p.230, e-artnow

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• Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy. Those who do not want mercy never seek it. It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness. A life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless than one that always verges on despair.

  Thomas Merton

  Wisdom, Men, Risk

  Thomas Merton (2005). “No Man is an Island”, p.21, Shambhala Publications

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• Human misery must somewhere have a stop; there is no wind that always blows a storm; great good fortune comes to failure in the end. All is change; all yields its place and goes; to persevere, trusting in what hopes he has, is courage in a man. The coward despairs.

  Euripides

  Blow, Men, Yield

  Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides (1959). “The complete Greek tragedies”

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• Hope is a terrible thing, she said. Is it? Yes, it keep you living in another place, a place which doesn't exist. For some people it's better than where they are. For many it's a relief. From life, she said. A relief from life? Is that living? Some people don't have a choice. No and that's awful for them. Hope is better than misery, he said. Or despair. Hope belongs in the same box as despair. Hope is not so bad, he said. At least despair has truth to it.

  Susan Minot

  People, Choices, Relief

  FaceBook post by Susan Minot from Dec 16, 2013

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