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Despair Quotes

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Despair Quotes

“There is a prayer intended to give strength to people faced with circumstances they don’t want to accept. The power of the prayer comes from it's insight into human nature. Because so many of us rage against the hand that life has dealt us. Because so many of us are cowardly. And afraid to stand up for what is right. Because so many of us give into despair when faced with an impossible choice. The good news for those who utter these words is that God will hear you and answer your prayer. The bad news is that sometimes the answer is no.”

PeopleWantGivingHumansSometimesHandsChoicesPrayerAnswersAcceptingImpossibleHuman NatureCircumstancesDespairNewsInsightRageGods WillGood NewsOur PrayersCowardlyBad News
Author:Mary Alice
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“We who are in the arts are at the risk of being in a popularity contest rather than a profession. If that fact causes you despair . . . pick another profession. Your desire to communicate must be bigger than your relationship with the chaotic and unfair realities . . . We have to create our own standards of discipline.”

IfsArtFactsRealityDesireCausesRiskDisciplineDespairStandardsPicksBiggerCommunicateProfessionOur RelationshipPopularityUnfairContestsChaoticPopularity Contest
Author:Anna Deavere Smith
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“You don't have to say anything. You don't have to teach anything. You just have to be who you are: a bright flame shining in the darkness of despair, a shining example of a person able to cross bridges by opening your heart and mind.”

MindHeartPersonsAbleTeachDarknessExampleDespairCrossesWho You AreShiningOpeningBridgesFlamesSay AnythingHeart And MindOpen Your HeartBe Who You Are
Book:Open Heart, Open Mind: A Guide to Inner Transformation
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“One of the best safeguards of our hopes, I have suggested, is to be able to mark off the areas of hopelessness and to acknowledge them, to face them directly, not with despair but with the creative intent of keeping them from polluting all the areas of possibility.”

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Book:Images of Hope: Imagination as Healer of the Hopeless
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“My good friends, we are all waiting. We are waiting, if not for the Messiah, as such, we are waiting for the messianic moment. And the messianic moment is what each and every one of us tries to build, meaning a certain area of humanity that links us to all those who are human and, therefore, desperately trying to fight despair as humanly as possible and - I hope - with some measure of success.”

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Author:Elie Wiesel
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“Sometimes, people end up thankful for what they mourned. You cannot achieve this state by seeking tragedy, but you can keep yourself open more to sorrow's richness than to unmediated despair. Tragedies with happy endings may be sentimental tripe, or they may be the true meaning of love.”

PeopleMayEndsSometimesStatesSufferingGriefAchieveSorrowDespairTragedySeekingSentimentalRichnessHappy EndingsTrue MeaningMeaning Of LoveTripeTrue Meaning Of Love
Book:Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity
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“The Imagination merely enables us to wander into the darkness of the unknown where, by the dim light of the knowledge we carry, we may glimpse something that seems of interest. But when we bring it out and examine it more closely it usually proves to be only trash whose glitter had caught our attention. Imagination is at once the source of all hope and inspiration but also of frustration. To forget this is to court despair.”

MayLightInspirationSeemsInterestImaginationForgetAttentionDarknessSourceProveDespairCourtCaughtWanderFrustrationGlimpseTrashGlitter
Book:The Art of Scientific Investigation
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“Despite what I had acchieved, I don't for a moment think I am any braver or better than anyone else. This is how I attempt to explain what gives me the stregnth to do what I do; when that thunderbolt of an idea first hit me and inspired me to row across oceans, it filled me with a sense of purpose so strong that it overcame my fears. Even when boredom, frustration, fatigue or despair threatened to overwhelm me, it was that powerful sense of purpose that kept me going.”

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Author:Roz Savage
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“It is important to recognize the power of our emotions-and to take responsibility for them by creating a light and positive atmosphere around ourselves. This attitude of joy that we create helps alleviate states of hopelessness, loneliness, and despair. Our relationships with others thus naturally improve, and little by little the whole of society becomes more positive and balanced.”

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Author:Tarthang Tulku
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“To make a resolution and act accordingly is to live with hope. There may be difficulties and hardships, but not disappointment or despair if you follow the path steadily. Do not hurry. This is a fundamental rule. If you hurry and collapse or tumble down, nothing is achieved. DO not rest in your efforts; this is another fundamental rule. Without stopping, without haste, carefully taking a step at a time forward will surely get you there.”

IfsMayEffortStepsPathDespairDifficultyFundamentalsDisappointmentResolutionHardshipCollapseStoppingHaste
Author:Shinichi Suzuki
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“Creators understand that their emotions are not necessarily a sign of the circumstances. They understand that in desperate circumstances they may experience joy, and in jubilant circumstances they may feel regret. They know that any emotion will change. But because emotions are not the centerpiece of their lives, they do not pander to them. They create what they create, not in reaction to their emotions but independent of them. On days filled with the depths of despair, they can create. On days filled with the heights of joy, they can create.”

KnowsFeelsMayJoyEmotionRegretCircumstancesDespairIndependentFilledDepthCreatorReactionsHeightDesperateCenterpieces
Author:Robert Fritz
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“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.”

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Author:Yehuda Berg
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“The bigness of the world is redemption. Despair compresses you into a small space, and a depression is literally a hollow in the ground. To dig deeper into the self, to go underground, is sometimes necessary, but so is the other route of getting out of yourself, into the larger world, into the openness in which you need not clutch your story and your troubles so tightly to your chest.”

WorldNeedsSelfSometimesStoriesSpaceTroubleDespairDeeperRedemptionChestsOpennessRoutesHollowClutchDig DeepSmall Spaces
Book:The Faraway Nearby
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“I could hear the knock and whistle of the water pipes, the purr of the calico cat. And at that moment a happiness filled me that was pure and perfect and yet it was bled with despair - as if I had been handed a cup of ambrosial nectar to drink from and knew that once I finished drinking, the cup would be withdrawn forever, and nothing to come would ever taste as good.”

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Author:David Leavitt
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“In the country, I stopped being a person who, in the words of Sylvia Boorstein, startles easily. I grew calmer, but beneath that calm was a deep well of loneliness I hadn't known was there. ... Anxiety was my fuel. When I stopped, it was all waiting for me: fear, anger, grief, despair, and that terrible, terrible loneliness. What was it about? I was hardly alone. I loved my husband and son. I had great friends, colleagues, students. In the quiet, in the extra hours, I was forced to ask the question, and to listen carefully to the answer: I was lonely for myself. [p. 123]”

WellsPersonsCountryAsksWaitingHoursAnswersGriefKnownLonelinessStudentsSonGrewTerribleQuietHusbandDespairAnxietyLonelyCalmExtrasFuelMy HusbandColleaguesGreat FriendCalmer
Author:Dani Shapiro
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“Somewhere along the journey of remembering who we really are, we may find ourselves in a very uncomfortable space, a void in which we realize that we haven't totally let go of our old beliefs, and on the other hand we have yet to fully plug into the new truths we have discovered. This awkward "place of mind" can bring on an internal crisis of uncertainty, instability, confusion, frustration, and a most unspeakable despair as the "dark night" sets in and makes its presence felt.”

MindMayHandsRememberNightBeliefFeltRealizingDarkSpaceJourneyHavensLetting GoDespairCrisisAwakeningConfusionUncertaintyUncomfortableFrustrationInternalsVoidAwkwardUnspeakablePlugsInstabilityDark Night
Author:Nicholas Schmidt
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