Desperation Quotes

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  Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Song, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.27, Heron Dance Press

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• Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.

  William S. Burroughs

  Change, Believe, Despair

  William S. Burroughs (1988). “The Western Lands”, Penguin Group USA

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• Success is the good fortune that comes from aspiration, desperation, perspiration,and inspiration.

  Evan Esar

  Inspirational, Motivational, Strength

  Evan Esar (1961). “Humorous English: a guide to comic usage, jocular speech and writing, and witty grammar”

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• In life you need either inspiration or desperation.

  Tony Robbins

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  FaceBook post by Tony Robbins from Apr 14, 2015

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• It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wise, Wisdom, Business

  'Walden' (1854) 'Economy'

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• Misery is complexity. Happiness is simplicity.

  Lester Levenson

  Happiness, Spiritual, Sadness

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• Desperation is like stealing from the Mafia: you stand a good chance of attracting the wrong attention.

  Douglas Horton

  Mafia, Attention, Chance

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• The reason 'help' is such a great prayer is that God is the gift of desperation. When you're in despair, you're teachable.

  Anne Lamott

  Prayer, Despair, Helping

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• When a man has reached a condition in which he believes that a thing must happen because he does not wish it, and that what he wishes to happen never will be, this is really the state called desperation.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Believe, Men, Wish

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• Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.

  Amy Tan

  Kindness, Inspiration, Flukes

  Amy Tan (2004). “The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings”

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• Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Wisdom, Powerful, Intelligent

  Benjamin Disraeli, Edmund Gosse, Robert Arnot (1904). “The Works of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Embracing Novels, Romances, Plays, Poems, Biography, Short Stories and Great Speeches”

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• Can it be that I have overlooked something, that there is something which I have failed to understand? Is it not possible that this state of despair is common to everyone?

  Leo Tolstoy

  Despair, Common, States

  "Confession". Book by Leo Tolstoy, pt. I, ch. 5, 1882.

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• I am one of those people who thrive on deadlines. Nothing brings on inspiration more readily than desperation.

  Harry Shearer

  Inspiration, People, Deadline

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• There are no desperate situations, there are only desperate people.

  Heinz Guderian

  Desperate Situations, People, Historical

  "Die Deutschen gepanzerten Truppen bis 1945". Book by Oskar Munzel, 1965.

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• The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  Walden ch. 1 (1854)

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• In all probability an outburst of desperation in the midst of general submissiveness will always help.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Helping, Midst, Outburst

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• In the range of my character at any given moment, I have acted in the only way it seemed to me I could have acted. This in no way means that I have done what was right; only what was possible for me. Sometimes I have done what I knew was wrong, and have rationalized. But rationalization is a form of desperation. It takes kindness to forgive oneself for one's life.

  Anne Truitt

  Forgiveness, Kindness, Mean

  Anne Truitt, Audrey Niffenegger (2013). “Daybook: The Journal of an Artist”, p.184, Simon and Schuster

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• Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation.

  James Thurber

  Fear, Men, Curmudgeon

  James Thurber (1956). “Further fables for our time”

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• Men of my age live in a state of continual desperation.

  Trevor McDonald

  Men, Age, Aging

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• Wheels of fire, cosmic, rich, full-bodied honest victories over desperation.

  Thomas Merton

  Fire, Victory, Wheels

  Thomas Merton (1997). “Dancing In The Water Of Life Volume 5:1963-1965: Seeking Peace in the Hermitage”, HarperOne

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• I don't think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain't desperate at some point, you ain't interesting.

  Jim Carrey

  Thinking, Creating, Interesting

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• It's an interesting combination: Having a great fear of being alone, and having a desperate need for solitude and the solitary experience. That's always been a tug of war for me.

  Jodie Foster

  War, Being Alone, Interesting

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• You might as well ask why a middle-aged man with no criminal record might put a paper bag over his head and rob a bank. I acted out of personal desperation.

  Aldrich Ames

  Men, Might, Criminals

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• Once a man worries, he clings to anything out of desperation; and once he clings he is bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whomever or whatever he is clinging to. A warrior-hunter, on the other hand, knows he will lure game into his traps over and over again, so he doesn't worry.

  Carlos Castaneda

  Attitude, Warrior, Men

  Carlos Castaneda (2009). “The Wheel Of Time: The Shamans Of Mexico Their Thoughts About Life De”, p.86, Simon and Schuster

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• If you are curious, you will learn. If you are desperate, you will discover.

  Mooji

  Desperate, Curious, Ifs

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