Despair Quotes - Page 35

• Christ, how did you ever get this screwed up! his mind demanded of him. He knew the answer, but even that was not a full explanation. Different segments of the organism called John Terrance Kelly knew different parts of the whole story, but somehow they'd never all come together, leaving the separate fragments of what had ...once been a tough, smart, decisive and to blunder about in confusion - and despair! There was a happy thought.

  Tom Clancy

  Smart, Confusion, Leaving

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• The only real laughter comes from despair.

  Groucho Marx

  Funny, Witty, Laughter

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• Why are there beings at all instead of nothing? That is the question. Presumably it is not arbitrary question, "Why are there beings at all instead of nothing"- this is obviously the first of all questions. Of course it is not the first question in the chronological sense [...] And yet, we are each touched once, maybe even every now and then, by the concealed power of this question, without properly grasping what is happening to us. In great despair, for example, when all weight tends to dwindle away from things and the sense of things grows dark, the question looms.

  Martin Heidegger

  Dark, Example, Arbitrary

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• It's despair at the lack of feeling, of love, of reason in the world. It's despair that anyone can even contemplate the idea of dropping a bomb or ordering that it should be dropped. It's despair that so few of us care. It's despair that there's so much brutality and callousness in the world. It's despair that perfectly normal young men can be made vicious and evil because they've won a lot of money. And then do what you've done to me.

  John Fowles

  Life, Men, Perfectly Normal

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• So now, whenever I despair, I no longer expect my end, but some bit of luck, some commonplace little miracle which, like a glittering link, will mend again the necklace of my days.

  Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

  Miracle, Luck, Links

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• Theirs is the banner in my hand. And I wish I had the power to tell them that the despair of their hearts was not to be final, and their night was not without hope. For the battle they lost can never be lost. For that which they died to save can never perish. Through all the darkness, through all the shame of which men are capable, the spirit of man will remain alive on this earth. It may sleep, but it will awaken. It may wear chains, but it will break through. And man will go on. Man, not men. ~Equality 7-2521 (as Prometheus), pgs 103-104

  Ayn Rand

  Sleep, Heart, Men

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Anthem”, p.51, Xist Publishing

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• NOT, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee; Not untwist—slack they may be—these last strands of man In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can; Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

  Gerard Manley Hopkins

  Men, Wish, Comfort

  'Duns Scotus's Oxford' (written 1879)

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• We are alive. We are human, with good and bad in us. That's all we know for sure. We can't create a new species or a new world. That's been done. Now we have to live within those boundaries . What are our choices? We can despair and curse, and change nothing. We can choose evil like our enemies have done and create a world based on hate. Or we can try to make things better.

  Carol Matas

  Hate, Evil, Choices

  Carol Matas (1993). “Daniel's Story”, p.70, Scholastic Inc.

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• Not to be onto something is to be in despair.

  Walker Percy

  Walker Percy (2011). “The Moviegoer”, p.10, Open Road Media

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• If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.

  Helen Keller

  Inspirational, Happiness, Encouragement

  Helen Keller (2010). “The World I Live In and Optimism: A Collection of Essays”, p.102, Courier Corporation

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• There it is!' he thought with rapture. 'When I was already in despair, and when it seemed there would be no end- there it is! She loves me. She's confessed it.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Would Be, Ends, Rapture

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• You're not eating anything," said Marilla sharply, eying her as if it were a serious shortcoming. Anne sighed. I can't. I'm in the depths of despair. Can you eat when you are in the depths of despair?" I've never been in the depths of despair, so I can't say," responded Marilla. Weren't you? Well, did you ever try to IMAGINE you were in the depths of despair?" No, I didn't." Then I don't think you can understand what it's like. It's very uncomfortable a feeling indeed.

  Lucy Maud Montgomery

  Thinking, Feelings, Trying

  Lucy Maud Montgomery (2016). “ANNE OF GREEN GABLES - Complete Collection: ALL 14 Books in One Volume (Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Rainbow Valley, The Story Girl, Chronicles of Avonlea and more): Including Letters and Autobiography of Lucy Maud Montgomery”, p.26, e-artnow

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• He had never thought of himself as much of a praying man, but as he sat in the car in the growing darkness and the minutes passed, he knew what it was to pray. It was to will goodness out of evil, hope out of despair, life out of death. It was to will dreams into existence and spectres into reality. It was to will an end to anguish and a beginning to joy.

  Elizabeth George

  Dream, Reality, Men

  Elizabeth George (2010). “A Great Deliverance”, p.413, Bantam

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• I turned to speak to God About the world's despair But to make bad matters worse I found God wasn't there.

  Robert Frost

  Atheism, World, Matter

  Robert Frost (1975). “The poetry of Robert Frost”

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• We are all subject to the fates. But we must act as if we are not, or die of despair.

  Philip Pullman

  Fate, Destiny, Subjects

  Nicholas Wright, Philip Pullman (2005). “His Dark Materials”, p.93, Heinemann

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• Since when do we even play games?” “Since when don’t we play games? Games of life, games of death. Games of love, of hope, of chance, of despair, and of all the myriad wonders in between.” I rolled my eyes at the newcomer. “Hello, Carter.

  Richelle Mead

  Eye, Games, Play

  Richelle Mead (2011). “Succubus On Top”, p.7, Kensington Publishing Corp.

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• And an inky-colored despair of rejection enveloped me like the black tortilla of depression around a pain burrito.

  Christopher Moore

  Pain, Rejection, Black

  Christopher Moore (2010). “Bite Me”, p.83, Hachette UK

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• Time is fluid, so the moments where everything feels perfect pass in a wink, and those where you're on your knees in despair drag on like the death of a thousand cuts.

  Ann Aguirre

  Cutting, Perfect, Knees

  Ann Aguirre (2008). “Wanderlust”, p.110, Penguin

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• It is all too easy as an artist to allow the shape of our career to be dictated to us by others. We can so easily wait to be chosen. Such passivity invites despair. To remain healthy and vital, artists must stay proactive in their own behalf.

  Julia Cameron

  Artist, Careers, Waiting

  Julia Cameron (2009). “Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance”, p.91, Penguin

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• ...one cannot but wonder how an environment can make people despair and sit idle and then, by changing the conditions, one can transform the same people into matchless performers.

  Muhammad Yunus

  People, Wonder, Environment

  Muhammad Yunus (2007). “Banker To The Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty”, p.171, PublicAffairs

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• There were no more choices, no more options, no more clever ways out of a tough situation. And the rush, I realized in a brutal wash of despair, is a false god I’ve chased my entire life. One that cost me everything in the blind search for sensation. My entire existence amounted to nothing.

  Kim Harrison

  Clever, Choices, Cost

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• Instead of expecting all and being lowered into despair each time I get less, I expect nothing now and, occasionally, I get a little, and am more than a little happy.

  Susan Sontag

  Littles, Expect Nothing, Expecting

  Susan Sontag (2009). “Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963”, p.189, Macmillan

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• In my own worst seasons I've come back from the colorless world of despair by forcing myself to look hard, for a long time, at a single glorious thing: a flame of red geranium outside my bedroom window. And then another: my daughter in a yellow dress. And another: the perfect outline of a full, dark sphere behind the crescent moon. Until I learned to be in love with my life again. Like a stroke victim retraining new parts of the brain to grasp lost skills, I have taught myself joy, over and over again(15).

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Life, Daughter, Dark

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• Should Disappointment, parent of Despair, Strive for her son to seize my careless heart; When, like a cloud, he sits upon the air, Preparing on his spell-bound prey to dart: Chase him away, sweet Hope, with visage bright, And fright him as the morning frightens night!

  John Keats

  Sweet, Morning, Disappointment

  John Keats (1914*). “The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats”, p.6, Рипол Классик

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• As often happened, Charmain began to despair of getting her mother to understand. She's not stupid, she just never lets her mind out, she thought.

  Diana Wynne Jones

  Mother, Stupid, Mind

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