Despair Quotes | Beyond Motive

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Despair Quotes

"Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven."

John Donne, British Poet

Despair, Heaven, Hell, Joy

10

"There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair."

Haruki Murakami, Japanese Writer

Despair, Writing

6

"No matter how ephemeral it is, a novel is something, while despair is nothing."

Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian Writer

Despair, Nothing

6

"There is no greater folly in the world than for a man to despair."

Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish Novelist

Despair, Folly, Man, World

6

"Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, and black despair succeeds brown study."

William Congreve, English Poet

Despair, Flags, Invention, Study

1

"Despair often breeds disease."

Sophocles, Greek Poet

Despair, Disease

1

"There was a castle called Doubting Castle, the owner whereof was Giant Despair."

John Bunyan, English Clergyman

"Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss."

Alexandre Dumas, French Dramatist

Despair, Feeling, Man

"The poet's expression of joy conceals his despair at not having found the reality of joy."

Max Jacob, French Poet

Despair, Expression, Joy, Reality

"To doubt is worse than to have lost; and to despair is but to antedate those miseries that must fall on us."

Philip Massinger, British Poet

"Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair."

Franz Kafka, Austrian Novelist

"Gaiety is often the reckless ripple over depths of despair."

Edwin Hubbel Chapin, American Clergyman

"Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference."

Charlie Chaplin, English Actor

Despair, Indifference, Mind

"Persuade thyself that imperfection and inconvenience are the natural lot of mortals, and there will be no room for discontent, neither for despair."

Ieyasu Tokugawa, Japanese Statesman

Despair, Discontent, Imperfection, Will

"I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair."

Joseph Addison, English Writer

"We destroy ourselves when we are ignorant or decide to live in ignorance."

Sunday Adelaja, Nigerian Author

Despair, Ignorance, Destruction, Awareness, Consequences

"The only difference was one of them was trying to make a perfect cake and one of them was trying to write a great book. But if we remove that from the equation, it's the same impulse and they are equally entitled to their ecstasies and their despair."

Michael Cunningham, American Writer

Despair, Difference, Trying

"When we arrived in London, my sadness at leaving Paris was turned into despair. After my long stay in the French capital, huge, ponderous, massive London seemed to me as ugly a thing as man could contrive to make."

James Weldon Johnson, American Poet

Despair, London, Man, Paris

"Schizophrenia cannot be understood without understanding despair."

R. D. Laing, Scottish Psychologist

Despair, Understanding

"Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you."

William Makepeace Thackeray, English Novelist

Despair, Promise

"Innumerable confusions and a feeling of despair invariably emerge in periods of great technological and cultural transition."

Marshall McLuhan, Canadian Sociologist

Despair, Feeling

"Don't despair too much if you see beautiful things destroyed, if you see them perish. Because the best things are always growing in secret."

Ben Okri, Nigerian Poet

"Scotsmen are metaphisical and emotional, they are sceptical and mystical, they are romantic and ironic, they are cruel and tender, and full of mirth and despair."

William Dunbar, Scottish Poet

Despair, Mirth, Romantic

"The novel is born of disillusionment; the poem, of despair."

Jose Bergamin, Spanish Writer

Despair, Disillusionment

"Waste brings woe, and sorrow hates despair."

Robert Greene, English Playwright

Despair, Sorrow, Waste

"Sad Patience, too near neighbour to despair."

Matthew Arnold, English Poet

Despair, Patience

"Despair has its own calms."

Bram Stoker, Irish Writer

"We define only out of despair, we must have a formula... to give a facade tot he void."

Emile M. Cioran, Romanian Philosopher

Despair, Formula

"Let me die because I do not want to see the sun again."

Harold E. Hughes, American Politician

Despair, Sun, Want

"He who labors diligently need never despair; for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor."

Menander, Greek Poet

Despair, Diligence, Labor

"I want no part of making any contribution whatsoever to the despair which eventually follows downbeat thinking."

Loretta Young, American Actress

Despair, Thinking, Want

"Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair."

Elie Wiesel, American Novelist

"I've found a different way to scent the air: already it's a by-word for despair."

Andrew Motion, English Poet

"When you get to know me, I don't despair - I just get up, clean up, and start again."

Avi Arad, Israeli Businessman

"You may not know it, but at the far end of despair, there is a white clearing where one is almost happy."

Joan Baez, American Musician

Despair, End, May

"Snobbery? But it's only a form of despair."

Joseph Brodsky, American Poet

Despair, Snobbery

"We have to go into the despair and go beyond it, by working and doing for somebody else, by using it for something else."

Elie Wiesel, American Novelist

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