Miserable Quotes - Page 20

• I should like to bury something precious in every place where I've been happy and then, when I'm old and ugly and miserable, I could come back and dig it up and remember.

  Evelyn Waugh

  Ugly, Remember, Should

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• Stop pathetically believing that you deserve fame or fame deserves you. It's yucky, and it's only making you miserable, so stop.

  Cintra Wilson

  Believe, Deserve You, Fame

  Cintra Wilson (2016). “A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Re-Examined As a Grotesque, Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations”, p.104, Wilberforce Codex

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• Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.

  Mark Twain

  Inspiration, Cocky, Ignorance

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.11, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• And ask each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one of them all who has not cursed his existence many times, and said to himself over and over again that he was the most miserable of men, I give you permission to throw me head-first into the sea.

  Voltaire

  Men, Sea, Giving

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• It’s a miserable story!” said Bruno. “It begins miserably, and it ends miserablier. I think I shall cry. Sylvie, please lend me your handkerchief.” “I haven’t got it with me,” Sylvie whispered. “Then I won’t cry,” said Bruno manfully.

  Lewis Carroll

  Thinking, Stories, Cry

  Lewis Carroll (1893). “Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (Fully Illustrated)”, p.136, LCI

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• A lover goes toward his beloved as enthusiastically as a schoolboy leaving his books, but when he leaves his girlfriend, he feels as miserable as the schoolboy on his way to school. (Act 2, scene 2)

  William Shakespeare

  Girlfriend, Book, School

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• I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour, but heaven knows I'm miserable now.

  Steven Morrissey

  Heaven, Hours, Haze

  "Song: "Heaven knows I'm miserable now" ("The Smiths")". 1984.

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• Quickly, the dragon came at him, encouraged As Beowulf fell back; its breath flared, And he suffered, wrapped around in swirling Flames -- a king, before, but now A beaten warrior. None of his comrades Came to him, helped him, his brave and noble Followers; they ran for their lives, fled Deep in a wood. And only one of them Remained, stood there, miserable, remembering, As a good man must, what kinship should mean.

  Burton Raffel

  Kings, Mean, Warrior

  Burton Raffel, Robert Payson Creed (1963). “Beowulf: A New Translation with an Introduction”

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• I talk too much because I have been made so miserable by what you are keeping hushed.

  Djuna Barnes

  Too Much, Made, Has Beens

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• ...I just gave up trying to be a Christian... Let's face it, I ain't got the knack for holiness. Besides, I didn't have the slightest little desire to join the likes of Reverend Pelham at the dinner table for fourteen minutes, much less at the banquet table of Heaven eternally. Eternity is a mighty long time to be stuck with people who judge every word you say and think and condemn most of what you do. It struck me as pretty miserable company. And if Reverend Pelham was the kind of company God preferred to keep, well, I just hoped they'd be happy together.

  Katherine Paterson

  Christian, Thinking, Judging

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• Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives.

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, Cheer, True Friend

  FaceBook post by Paulo Coelho from Aug 23, 2011

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• And as he drove on, the rainclouds dragged down the sky after him, for, though he did not know it, Rob McKenna was a Rain God. All he knew was that his working days were miserable and he had a succession of lousy holidays. All the clouds knew was that they loved him and wanted to be near him, to cherish him, and to water him.

  Douglas Adams

  Rain, Holiday, Clouds

  Douglas Adams (2009). “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish”, p.15, Pan Macmillan

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• Human beings may be miserable specimens, in the main, but we can learn, and, through learning, become decent people.

  Orson Scott Card

  People, May, Decent

  Orson Scott Card (2010). “Ender's Game”, p.8, Macmillan

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• Man's grandeur is that he knows himself to be miserable.

  Blaise Pascal

  Men, Grandeur, Knows

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• Isn't it true that you start your life a sweet child believing in everything under your father's roof? Then comes the day of the Laodiceans, when you know you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, and with the visage of a gruesome grieving ghost you go shuddering through nightmare life.

  Jack Kerouac

  Sweet, Children, Father

  Jack Kerouac (2007). “Road Novels 1957-1960”

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• There was a tacit understanding between them that 'liquor helped'; growing more miserable with every glass one hoped for the moment of relief.

  Graham Greene

  Glasses, Alcohol, Understanding

  Graham Greene (1973). “The Portable Graham Greene”

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• And exactly how does a miserable face help the war effort?" he asked sharply, his mood beginning to change. "Will a frown bring back the dead or fortify a town? If I allow myself to laugh in the face of misery, I rest my mind from the stress of it all, and then it'll work the better for you and your war. And if I'm really to be one of your advisers, Your Majesty, accept this piece of advise: Take happiness where and when you find it, because there is going to be precious little of it in the next few months!

  Stuart Hill

  Stress, War, Laughing

  Stuart Hill (2011). “The Icemark Chronicles #1: Cry of the Icemark”, p.162, Scholastic Inc.

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• You would be miserable if you had to go through life with a human doormat with 'Welcome' written on him. You want some one made of sterner stuff. You want, as it were, a sparring-partner, some one with whom you can quarrel happily with the certain knowledge that he will not curl up in a ball for you to kick, but will be there with the return wallop.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Sparring Partner, Curls, Would Be

  P. G. Wodehouse (2009). “Piccadilly Jim: Easyread Super Large 24pt Edition”, p.405, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Kids are like heroin, a little heroin addiction. When it’s bad, you’ve never been so miserable, but when it’s good you’ve never been so high.

  Dan Savage

  Kids, Addiction, Littles

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• Normally, in anything I do, I'm fairly miserable. I do it, and I get grumpy because there is a huge, vast gulf, this aching disparity, between the platonic ideal of the project that was living in my head, and the small, sad, wizened, shaking, squeaking thing that I actually produce.

  Neil Gaiman

  Grumpy, Projects, Disparity

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• I dislike the thought that some animal has been made miserable to feed me. If I am going to eat meat, I want it to be from an animal that has lived a pleasant, uncrowded life outdoors, on bountiful pasture, with good water nearby and trees for shade.

  Wendell Berry

  Animal, Water, Tree

  Wendell Berry (2003). “The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry”, p.326, Counterpoint

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• In a vacuum all photons travel at the same speed. They slow down when travelling through air or water or glass. Photons of different energies are slowed down at different rates. If Tolstoy had known this, would he have recognised the terrible untruth at the beginning of Anna Karenina? 'All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own particular way.' In fact it's the other way around. Happiness is a specific. Misery is a generalisation. People usually know exactly why they are happy. They very rarely know why they are miserable.

  Jeanette Winterson

  Glasses, Air, People

  "Written on the Body". Book by Jeanette Winterson, 1992.

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• When you have a good romance, find ways to make their lives miserable and hellish...Do you think 'Titanic' would have been so popular if they had both lived? Not a prayer.

  Orson Scott Card

  Prayer, Thinking, Romance

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• What could he mean by speaking so, as if I were always thinking that he cared for me, when I know he does not; he cannot. ... But I won't care for him. I surely am mistress enough of myself to control this wild, strange, miserable feeling

  Elizabeth Gaskell

  Mean, Thinking, Feelings

  Elizabeth Gaskell (2010). “The Complete Works of Elizabeth Gaskell (20+ Books)”, p.1624, BookCaps Study Guides

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• If I were in heaven, Nelly, I should be extremely miserable." "Because you are not fit to go there," I answered. "All sinners would be miserable in heaven.

  Emily Bronte

  Heaven, Would Be, Fit

  Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.424, Penguin

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