Wretchedness Quotes

• We can only know one thing about God - that he is what we are not. Our wretchedness alone is an image of this. The more we contemplate it, the more we contemplate him.

  Simone Weil

  God, Contemplating, Knows

  "Attention and Will (1947)". "Gravity and Grace". Book by Simone Weil, p. 216, 1947.

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• It is the wretchedness of being rich that you have to live with rich people.

  Logan Pearsall Smith

  Money, Carpe Diem, People

  Afterthoughts (1931) "In the World"

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• A great proportion of the wretchedness which has embittered married life, has originated in a negligence of trifles.

  Thomas Sprat

  Married, Proportion, Trifles

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• Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to a man.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Lonely, Loneliness, Men

  Thomas Carlyle (1870). “Past and Present”, p.381

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• I am the subject of depression so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to.  But I always get back again by this-I know that I trust Christ.  I have no reliance but in Him, and if He falls, I shall fall with Him.  But if He does not, I shall not.  Because He lives, I shall live also, and I spring to my legs again and fight with my depressions of spirit and get the victory through it.  And so may you do, and so you must, for there is no other way of escaping from it.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Spring, Fall, Fighting

  Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1988). “Spurgeon at His Best: Over 2200 Striking Quotations from the World's Most Exhaustive and Widely-read Sermon Series”, Baker Publishing Group

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• The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.

  George Washington

  Fate, Army, Conquer

  1776 General orders, 2 Jul. Quoted in J C Fitzpatrick (ed) Writings of George Washington (1932), vol.5.

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• Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.

  George Washington

  Choices, Brave, Enemy

  1776 General orders, 2 Jul. Quoted in J C Fitzpatrick (ed) Writings of George Washington (1932), vol.5.

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• Each one of us must suffer long to himself before he can learn that he is but one in a great community of wretchedness which has been pitilessly repeating itself from the foundation of the world.

  William Dean Howells

  Long, Community, Suffering

  William Dean Howells (2015). “William Dean Howells - Premium Collection: 27 Novels in One Volume (Illustrated): The Rise of Silas Lapham, A Traveler from Altruria, Through the Eye of the Needle, An Open-Eyed Conspiracy, Indian Summer, The Flight of Pony Baker, A Hazard of New Fortunes, Ragged Lady & many more”, p.4266, e-artnow

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• Gospel riches are sent to remove our wretchedness, and mercy to remove our misery.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Riches, Misery, Mercy

  Spurgeon, Charles (2015). “The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon, Volume 29: Sermons 1698-1756”, p.441, Delmarva Publications, Inc.

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• So we can only know God well by knowing our iniquities. Therefore those who have known God, without knowing their wretchedness, have not glorified Him, but have glorified themselves.

  Blaise Pascal

  Knowing, Sin, Wells

  "Pascal's Pensées: Selections".

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• Only those who have learned well to be earnestly dissatisfied with themselves, and to be confounded with shame at their wretchedness truly understand the Christian gospel.

  John Calvin

  Christian, Shame, Wells

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• Aspiring beggary is wretchedness itself.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Beggary

  Oliver Goldsmith (1816). “The Vicar of Wakefield”, p.10

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• May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian Church in which everyone is a saint! I want to be and remain in the church and little flock of the fainthearted, the feeble and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help, who believe in the forgiveness of sins.

  Martin Luther

  Christian, Believe, Church

  Martin Luther “Day by Day We Magnify You: Daily Readings for the Entire Year”, Augsburg Books

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• Sin is nothing else but the failure to recognize human wretchedness.

  Simone Weil

  Sin, Humans

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.122, Psychology Press

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• We should strive to keep our hearts open to the sufferings and wretchedness of other people, and pray continually that God may grant us that spirit of compassion which is truly the spirit of God.

  Vincent de Paul

  Heart, Compassion, People

  Saint Vincent De Paul (2013). “Some Counsels Of S. Vincent De Paul : To Which Is Appended The Thoughts Of Mademoiselle Le Gras”, p.10, Read Books Ltd

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• The rule in our society is that while those who kill once make wretched a single person are severely punished, those (heads of state, inventors, manufacturers) who are responsible for the death, mutilation or general wretchedness of thousands or millions are rewarded with fame, riches and prizes... If you are going to rob, rob big; if you're going to kill, kill big.

  Philip Slater

  Politics, Our Society, Riches

  Philip Slater (2016). “The Pursuit of Loneliness: America's Discontent and the Search for a New Democratic Ideal”, p.142, Beacon Press

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• One has followed the other in an endless circle, for it is certain that as man's insight increases so he finds both wretchedness and greatness within himself. In a word man knows he is wretched. Thus he is wretched because he is so, but he is truly great because he knows it.

  Blaise Pascal

  Greatness, Men, Circles

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

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• The recognition of human wretchedness is difficult for whoever is rich and powerful because he is almost invincibly led to believe that he is something. It is equally difficult for the man in miserable circumstances because he is almost invincibly led to believe that the rich and powerful man is something.

  Simone Weil

  Powerful, Believe, Men

  Simone Weil (2002). “Gravity and Grace”, p.122, Psychology Press

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• Being unable to cure death, wretchedness, and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.

  Blaise Pascal

  Ignorance, Men, Thinking

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• Knowledge of the truth I may perhaps have attained to; happiness certainly not. What shall I do? Accomplish something in the world, men tell me. Shall I then publish my grief to the world, contribute one more proof for the wretchedness and misery of existence, perhaps discover a new flaw in human life, hitherto unnoticed? I might then reap the rare reward of becoming famous, like the man who discovered the spots on Jupiter. I prefer, however, to keep silent.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Grief, Knowledge, Men

  Soren Kierkegaard (1959). “Either/ Or”

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• The histories which we have of the great tragedy give no idea of the general wretchedness, the squalid misery, which entered into every individual life in the region given up to the war. Where the armies camped the destruction was absolute.

  Rebecca Harding Davis

  War, Army, Ideas

  Rebecca Harding Davis (1904). “Rebecca Harding Davis: Writing Cultural Autobiography”, p.76, Vanderbilt University Press

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• The Christian religion, [Pascal] claims, teaches two truths: that there is a God who men are capable of knowing, and that there is an element of corruption in men that renders them unworthy of God. Knowledge of God without knowledge of man's wretchedness begets pride, and knowledge of man's wretchedness without knowledge of God begets despair, but knowledge of Jesus Christ furnishes man knowledge of both simultaneously.

  William Lane Craig

  Christian, Jesus, Pride

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• I just loved being divorced from my own wretchedness.

  Beth Henley

  Divorced, My Own

  "Expressing 'the Misery and Confusion Truthfully'". Interview with Jackson R. Bryer, American Drama, Volume 14, No. 1 (p. 87), Winter 2005.

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• Our very wretchedness grows dear to us when suffering for one we love.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Love, Suffering, Dear

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• There is nothing that we can see on earth which does not either show the wretchedness of man or the mercy of God. One either sees the powerlessness of man without God, or the strength of man with God.

  Blaise Pascal

  Men, Mercy Of God, Doe

  Blaise Pascal, James M. Houston (2006). “The Mind on Fire: Faith for the Skeptical and Indifferent”, p.53, David C Cook

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