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Despair Quotes

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Despair Quotes

“At times it may seem worse - harder, at least - to live through the despair of this loss without the temporary comfort of our addictive behaviour. We cannot drown our sorrows. We must face the fact that we don’t know, really, where we are, how we got here, how long the pain will last, or how to move past it. That uncertainty may be the most painful part of not knowing a God: no one is there to reassure us that a God will take the pain and confusion away. We simply don’t know. And we have no way to numb ourselves or to forget the condition we’re in.”

KnowsWayMayLongFactsSeemsPainLastsPastFacesMovingLossForgetKnowingConditionsSorrowComfortDespairHarderPainfulGods WillConfusionUncertaintyTemporaryNot KnowingBehaviourNumbHis Loss
Author:Marya Hornbacher
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“Millions of Americans would still despair in the eight long years of the Depression that lay ahead and many of their individual dreams would be dashed on the rocks of economic hardship. But collectively, the country was in a new place, with a new confidence that the federal government would actively try to solve problems rather than fiddle or cater to the rich. Hope was no longer for Pollyannas; the cynics about the American system were in retreat.”

TryingYearsLongStillsCountryProblemDreamGovernmentWould BeIndividualMillionsRichEconomicRocksDespairLaysEightSolveHardshipFederal GovernmentRetreatNew PlacesFiddlePollyanna
Book:The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope
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“Civilization is perhaps approaching one of those long winters that overtake it from time to time. Romantic Christendom - picturesque, passionate, unhappy episode - may be coming to an end. Such a catastrophe would be no reason for despair.”

MayLongEndsReasonWould BeAtheismCivilizationDespairWinterPassionatePositive AtheismUnhappyNo ReasonEpisodesCatastropheChristendomPicturesqueComing To An End
Book:The Works of George Santayana: Character and opinion in the United States. The genteel tradition at bay. Dewey's naturalistic metaphysics. Philosophical heresy
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“Once a person has taken their life, in the inner realms, the suicide will repeat automatically the feelings of despair and fear which preceded his self murder, and go through the act and the death struggle time after time with ghastly persistence... They remain conscious - often entangled in the final scene of the earth life for a very long time, unaware that they have lost the physical body.”

PersonsLongSelfFeelingsBodyEarthLostStruggleTakenSceneDespairLong TimeConsciousMurderSuicideFinalsPersistenceRealmsRepeatsPhysical BodyGhastlyEarth Life
Author:Annie Besant
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“The stark truth is that as long as the welfare state makes it possible for young women - or teenage girls - to have children without a husband and survive without a job, out-of-wedlock births will remain ruinously high, and the inner city will continue to be marked by crime, poverty, and despair.”

ChildrenLongStatesJobsYoungGirlCitiesPovertyCrimeBirthTruth IsHusbandDespairWelfareYoung WomenTeenageStarksWelfare StateInner CityTeenage GirlWedlock
Book:Libertarianism: A Primer
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“Your life is not predestined, as in Calvinist thought, where everything is written down in the book of life long before your birth and is inescapable. There are choices, accidents, hints and wrong paths, and the ego you, or whatever you call yourself, is a factor in all this. But there is still this other factor that keeps calling. At some moment, people turn, in despair or when they are unable to go any longer on a certain route, and this inner voice says, "Where have you been? I've been waiting for you to turn to me for a long time."”

PeopleLongStillsBookMomentsLife IsCertainTurnsChoicesWaitingVoicePathWrittenBirthCallingEgoDespairLong TimeAccidentsFactorsRoutesLong LifeHintsInner VoiceWaiting For YouPredestinedWrong PathBook Of Life
Author:James Hillman
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“In an all-out nuclear war, more destructive power than in all of World War II would be unleashed every second during the long afternoon it would take for all the missiles and bombs to fall. A World War II every second-more people killed in the first few hours than all the wars of history put together. The survivors, if any, would live in despair amid the poisoned ruins of a civilization that had committed suicide.”

PeopleIfsWorldFirstsLongWarWould BeTogetherFallHoursCivilizationDespairSuicideCommittedNuclearRuinsWar Of The WorldsBombsDestructiveSurvivorAfternoonWorld War IiWorld War IMissilesNuclear WarEvery SecondUnleashedDestructive Power
Book:Jimmy Carter
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“The bleakness of what faces us is difficult to swallow. As long as we engage in happy platitudes and a false kind of vision of the possible, it may empower you over the short term, but it is eventually, because of the reality in front of us, going to lead to despair and cynicism and apathy. It's better to swallow hard the bitter pill of what we're up against.”

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Author:Chris Hedges
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“Long looking at paintings is equivalent to being dropped into a foreign city, where gradually, out of desire and despair, a few key words, then a little syntax make a clearing in the silence. Art... is a foreign city, and we deceive ourselves when we think it familiar... We have to recognize that the language of art, all art, is not our mother-tongue.”

ThinkingLittlesLongArtMotherDesireLanguageCitiesSilencePaintingKeysDespairArt IsTongueFamiliarDeceivingClearingSyntaxMother Tongue
Author:Jeanette Winterson
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“My experiences of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them nor be indisposed to serve them: nor, in spite of failures which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge, or the present aspect of affairs, do I despair of the future. The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope.”

ThinkingMenMeanLongDesireHumanityIndividualTeachProgressTruth IsDespairAspectErrorsAffairWaveAcknowledgeSpiteMarchImmenseProvidenceDiscouragedImpatientAdvancingLament
Author:Robert E. Lee
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“Does anything in nature despair except man? An animal with a foot caught in a trap does not seem to despair. It is too busy trying to survive. It is all closed in, to a kind of still, intense waiting. Is this a key? Keep busy with survival. Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go.”

MenTryingKindLongDoeStillsSeemsPainRememberOrderWaitingNatureLosesAnimalTreeFeetKeysLetting GoDespairSurvivalBusyCaughtIntenseTrapsPsychicsLet It GoToo BusyKeep Busy
Book:The Journals of May Sarton Volume One: Journal of a Solitude, Plant Dreaming Deep, and Recovering
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“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but giving up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair - these are the long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust. You are as young as your faith and as old as your doubts; as young as you self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.”

PeopleGivingYearsLongSoulSelfYoungSpiritTurnsGrowsNumbersWorryDoubtGrowingDespairGiving UpIdealsSkinsSelf ConfidenceEnthusiasmDustBowsDistrustWrinkles
Author:James E. Faust
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“Once poverty is gone, we'll need to build museums to display its horrors to future generations. They'll wonder why poverty continued so long in human society - how a few people could live in luxury while billions dwelt in misery, deprivation and despair.”

PeopleNeedsHumansLongPoorBusinessWonderPovertyGoneGenerationsHorrorDespairMiseryCharityBillionsLuxuryMuseumsDisplayFuture GenerationHuman SocietyDeprivation
Book:Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism
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“In my own worst seasons I've come back from the colorless world of despair by forcing myself to look hard, for a long time, at a single glorious thing: a flame of red geranium outside my bedroom window. And then another: my daughter in a yellow dress. And another: the perfect outline of a full, dark sphere behind the crescent moon. Until I learned to be in love with my life again. Like a stroke victim retraining new parts of the brain to grasp lost skills, I have taught myself joy, over and over again(15).”

WorldLifeLooksLongHardJoyLostDarkMy OwnPerfectBehindsBrainWorstTaughtMoonSkillsDespairLong TimeDaughterRedWindowSeasonsDressesVictimFlamesGloriousMy DaughterYellowSpheresBedroomStrokesRebirthOutlinesColorlessCrescentCrescent Moon
Author:Barbara Kingsolver
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“Several times I asked myself, "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?" And I searched for an answer to my questions in every area of knowledge acquired by man. For a long time I carried on my painstaking search; I did not search casually, out of mere curiosity, but painfully, persistently, day and night, like a dying man seeking salvation. I found nothing.”

MenLongStatesNightFoundAnswersCommonDyingDespairLong TimeAreasSalvationMereCuriositySeekingDay And NightOverlooked
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. Even Muggles feel their presence, though they can’t see them. Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself — soul-less and evil. You’ll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life.”

IfsFeelsLongSoulEnoughFeelingsEarthEvilLeftMemoriesWalksAirWorstCreaturesDespairGloryDecayMentorDrainsGood FeelingHappy MemoriesMugglesDementors
Author:J. K. Rowling
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“But what I really long to know you do not tell either: what you feel, although I've given you hints by the score of my regard. You like me. You wouldn't waste time or paper on a being you didn't like. But I think I've loved you since we met at your mother's funeral. I want to be with you forever and beyond, but you write that you are too young to marry or too old or too short or too hungry - until I crumple your letters up in despair, only to smooth them out again for a twelfth reading, hunting for hidden meanings.”

ThinkingKnowsWantFeelsWritingLongYoungMotherReadingGivenForeverMetsDespairWastePaperLettersRegardHungryLike MeScoreFuneralWasting TimeHuntingSmoothToo ShortHintsReally LongHidden MeaningWant To Be With YouI Want To Be With You
Author:Gail Carson Levine
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“If one is devoid of hope and thanksgiving, he cannot for long remain sinless, for he will, in despair, have slackened his resolve. Feelings of futility foster vulnerability. Self-pity is such a busy stagehand, rearranging the scenery to help sin make its entrance. No wonder the prophets say that without faith in the Lord, there is no hope.”

IfsLongSelfHelpingFeelingsSinWonderLordDespairAdversityBusyPityVulnerabilityProphetResolveNo HopeSelf PityFutilityEntrancesSceneryRearranging
Author:Neal A. Maxwell
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“From the latter he is defended by being well armed and having good allies, and if he is well armed he will have good friends, and affairs will always remain quiet within when they are quiet without, unless they should have been already disturbed by conspiracy; and even should affairs outside be disturbed, if he has carried out his preparations and has lived as I have said, as long as he does not despair, he will resist every attack.”

IfsShouldWellsLongDoeHas BeensArtSaidWarQuietDespairShould HaveAffairPreparationLatterAlliesConspiracyGood FriendArt Of WarShould Have BeenDisturbed
Book:The Prince
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“In my heart I know you didn't come here just for me, you came here because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope. In the face of a politics that's shut you out, that's told you to settle, that's divided us for too long, you believe we can be one people, reaching for what's possible, building that more perfect union.”

PeopleKnowsBelieveHeartLongWarCountryFacesPerfectBusinessBuildingMy HeartDespairUnionsSettlingReachingDividedBelive
Author:Barack Obama
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“When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

WayLongAbleRememberNightUniverseEvilForceRealizingJusticeDarkMoralPowerCreativeTomorrowThousandMountainDespairLowsCloudsYesterdayMidnightArcsDrearyHovering
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“The body, the mind, and the spirit don't form a pyramid, they form a circle. Each of them runs into the other two. The body isn't below the mind and the spirit; from the point of view it's between them. if you reside too much in the mind, then you get too abstract and cut off from the world. You long for the spiritual life, but you can't get to it, and you fall into despair. The exercise of the senses frees you from abstraction and opens the way to transcendence.”

IfsWorldWayMindLongTwoBodyRunningSpiritualFormSpiritFallViewsToo MuchCuttingBalanceExerciseDespairPoint Of ViewCirclesSensesAbstractSpiritual LifeAbstractionTranscendencePyramids
Book:Moo
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“There are peaks, there are valleys. But they're all kind of carved and smoothed out, and it feels like a low level of despair you live in. Where you're not getting any answers, but you're living OK. And you can smile at the office. You know? But it's a low level of despair. I was on Prozac for a long time. It may have helped me out of a jam for a little bit, but people stay on it forever. I had to get off at a certain point because I realized that, you know, everything's just OK.”

PeopleKnowsFeelsKindMayLittlesLongCertainBitsAnswersLevelsForeverDespairOfficeDepressionLittle BitLong TimeLowsI RealizedAll KindsValleysJamProzacLow Level
Author:Jim Carrey
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