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Despair Quotes

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Despair Quotes

“Among the flowers no perfume is like mine; That which is best in me comes from within. So those in this world who would rise and shine Should seek internal excellence to win. And though 'tis true that falsehood and despair Meet in my name, yet bear it still in mind That where they meet they perish. All is fair When they are gone and nought remains behind.”

WorldShouldMindStillsWinningNamesBehindsGoneThis WorldMinesFlowerBearsDespairFairsRemainsShiningExcellenceInternalsFalsehoodPerfume
Author:Charles Godfrey Leland
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“One of the most extraordinary things about industrial society of the present day is its idiot lack of memory. Tabloids and movies take the place of mental processes and revolts, crimes, despairs pass off in a dribble of vague words and rubber stamp phrases without leaving a scratch on the mind of the driven instalment-paying, subway-packing mass.”

MindProcessMemoriesCrimeDespairMassExtraordinaryLeavingDrivenIdiotPhrasesVagueStampsScratchesRevoltSubwayPresent DayRubberTabloidsExtraordinary ThingsPackingDribble
Book:John Dos Passos: the major nonfictional prose
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“When suicide is out of fashion we conclude that none but madmen destroy themselves; and all the efforts of courage appear chimerical to dastardly minds ... Nevertheless, how many instances are there, well attested, of men, in every other respect perfectly discreet, who, without remorse, rage, or despair, have quitted life for no other reason than because it was a burden to them, and have died with more composure than they lived?”

MenMindWellsReasonEffortFashionDespairDiedSuicideBurdenRageInstanceNeverthelessRemorseMadmenComposureDiscreet
Book:ESSAYS ON SUICIDE AND THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
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“The Southern newspapers, with their advertisements of negro sales and personal descriptions of fugitive slaves, supply details of misery that it would be difficult for imagination to exceed. Scorn, derision, insult, menace - the handcuff, the last - the tearing away of children from parents, of husbands from wives - the weary trudging in droves along the common highways, the labor of body, the despair of mind, the sickness of heart - these are the realities which belong to the system, and form the rule, rather that the exception, in the slave's experience.”

MindHeartChildrenBodyRealityWould BeLastsFormParentDifficultImaginationCommonWifeHusbandDespairLaborSlaveryMiserySlaveDetailsNewspapersInsultSicknessDescriptionExceptionSouthernWearyHighwaysScornExceedMenaceAdvertisementsFugitiveParent ChildDerisionHusband Wife
Book:Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839
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“There is yet a silent agony in which the mind appears to disdain all external help, and broods over its distresses with gloomy reserve. This is the most dangerous state of mind; accidents or friendships may lessen the louder kinds of grief, but all remedies for this must be had from within, and there despair too often finds the most deadly enemy.”

MindKindMayStatesHelpingGriefEnemyDangerousDespairSilentAccidentsOver ItState Of MindRemedyAgonyReservesDistressGloomyDisdain
Book:The Works of Oliver Goldsmith
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“Myth was regarded as primary; it was concerned with what was thought to be timeless and constant in our existence. Myth looked back to the origins of life, to the foundations of culture, and to the deepest levels of the human mind. Myth was not concerned with practical matters, but with meaning. Unless we find some significance in our lives, we mortal men and women fall very easily into despair. The mythos of a society provided people with a context that made sense of their day-to-day lives; it directed their attention to the eternal and the universal.”

PeopleMenMindHumansMadeMatterFallCultureLevelsExistenceAttentionOur LivesAtheismDespairEternalMen And WomenConcernedUniversalFoundationConstantPositive AtheismMythPracticalsMortalsPrimariesSignificanceHuman MindTimelessDay To DayDay LifeOrigin Of LifeDay To Day Life
Book:The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism
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“[...] a morass of despair violence death with a thin layer of glass spread upon the surface where Love, a tiny crab with pincers and rainbow shell, walked delicately ever sideways but getting nowhere, while the sun [...] rose higher in the sky its tassels dropping with flame threatening every moment to melt the precarious highway of glass. And the people: giant pathworks of colour with limbs missing and parts of their mind snipped off to fit them into the outline of the free pattern.”

PeopleMindMomentsSunViolenceSkyMissingHigherFitDespairRoseGlassesPatternsSpreadSurfaceTinyFlamesGiantsColourLayersRainbowShellsThreateningLimbsHighwaysDroppingOutlinesPrecariousSidewaysCrabsTassels
Author:Janet Frame
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“Men of strong minds and who think for themselves, should not be discouraged on finding occasionally that some of their best ideas have been anticipated by former writers; they will neither anathematize others nor despair themselves. They will rather go on discovering things before discovered, until they are rewarded with a land hitherto unknown, an empire indisputably their own, both right of conquest and of discovery.”

ThinkingMenShouldMindHas BeensIdeasStrongLandGoes OnDespairFindingsDiscoveryFormerEmpiresDiscoveringConquestDiscouragedStrong MindDiscovering Things
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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“Prayer by its nature is communion and union of man with God; by its action it is the reconciliation of man with God, the mother and daughter of tears, a bridge for crossing temptations, a wall of protection from afflictions, a crushing of conflicts, boundless activity, the spring of virtues, the source of spiritual gifts, invisible progress, food of the soul, the enlightening of the mind, an axe for despair, a demonstration of hope, release from sorrow, the wealth of monks.”

MenMindSoulActionSpiritualMotherPeaceWealthPrayerVirtueProgressTearsSourceWallSorrowActivityConflictDespairSpringDaughterUnionsProtectionInvisibleTemptationReleaseBridgesCrushCommunionAfflictionMonkReconciliationEnlighteningDemonstrationBoundlessCrossingsMother And DaughterSpiritual Gifts
Author:Ignatius Bryanchaninov
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“Have confidence in the compassion of our Creator. Reflect well on what you are now doing, and keep before you the things you have done. Lift up your eyes to the overflowing compassion of heaven, and while He waits for you, draw near in tears to our merciful Judge. Having before your mind that He is a Just Judge, do not take your sins lightly; and having also in mind that He is compassionate, do not despair. The God-Man gives man confidence before God.”

MenGivingMindWellsDoneEyeChristianHeavenWaitingSinCompassionTearsJudgingDespairDrawsCreatorLiftsOrthodoxCompassionateMercifulHave Confidence
Author:Pope Gregory I
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“When such men, who are beyond hope and fear, begin in their dim minds to see the source their woes, it may be an evil time for those who have wronged them. The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair.”

MenFeelsMindMayEvilStrongSourceDespairWeakMadThrillWoeWrongedHopes And FearsWeak Man
Book:Collected Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Delphi Classics)
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“In the middle of this despair [of postwar Germany], my family learned about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the healing message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. This message made all the difference; it lifted us above our daily misery. Life was still thorny and the circumstances still horrible, but the gospel brought light, hope, and joy into our lives. The plain and simple truths of the gospel warmed our hearts and enlightened our minds. They helped us look at ourselves and the world around us with different eyes and from an elevated viewpoint.”

WorldMindLooksHeartMadeStillsDifferentLightEyeJoyJesusChristDifferencesChurchSimpleHealingOur LivesMiddleCircumstancesDespairMessagesJesus ChristMy FamilyMiserySaintHorribleGermanyLatterEnlightenedViewpointsLatter DaysSimple TruthsLatter Day SaintsPlain And Simple
Author:Dieter F. Uchtdorf
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“Those who say they believe in God and yet neither love nor fear Him, do not in fact believe in Him but in those who have taught them that God exists. Those who believe that they believe in God, but without any passion in their heart, any anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only in the God-idea, not in God.”

MindBelieveHeartIdeasFactsPassionDoubtTaughtDespairElementsUncertaintyBelieve In GodAnguishConsolationGod Exists
Author:Miguel de Unamuno
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“The langour of Youth - how unique and quintessential it is! How quickly, how irrecoverably, lost! The zest, the generous affections, the illusions, the despair, all the traditional attributes of Youth - all save this come and go with us through life...These things are a part of life itself; but languor - the relaxation of yet unwearied sinews, the mind sequestered and self-regarding, the sun standing still in the heavens and the earth throbbing to our own pulse - that belongs to Youth alone and dies with it.”

MindStillsSelfEarthDiesLostHeavenSunYouthDespairUniqueIllusionStandingAffectionTraditionalGenerousAttributesRelaxationPulseComes And GoesParts Of LifeZestStanding StillQuintessentialBrideshead Revisited
Author:Evelyn Waugh
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“The palace started as a single vaulted room and grew in proportion to my despair. It began as an exercise to keep my mind from its melancholy, then it became a dream and a necessity. . . . I built a temple in my head. . . . Its hallways were as lofty as a cathedral, and the arch of each window as supple as a bow. Its corridors were the passages of my own brain.”

MindDreamMy OwnRoomsBrainGrewExerciseDespairBuiltWindowProportionTemplesMelancholyPassagesBowsPalacesLoftyCathedralsArchesCorridorsHallwaysSupple
Author:Lisa St. Aubin de Terán
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“Nothing fires the warrior’s heart more with courage than to find himself and his comrades at the point of annihilation, at the brink of being routed and overrun, and then to dredge not merely from one’s own bowels or guts but from one’s discipline and training the presence of mind not to panic, not to yield to the possession of despair, but instead to complete those homely acts of order which Dienekes had ever declared the supreme accomplishment of the warrior: to perform the commonplace under far-from-commonplace conditions.”

MindHeartOrderFireConditionsDisciplineDespairTrainingPossessionSupremeWarriorAccomplishmentGutsYieldPanicCommonplaceComradeAnnihilationHomelyBowelsPresence Of Mind
Book:Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
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“Christ, how did you ever get this screwed up! his mind demanded of him. He knew the answer, but even that was not a full explanation. Different segments of the organism called John Terrance Kelly knew different parts of the whole story, but somehow they'd never all come together, leaving the separate fragments of what had ...once been a tough, smart, decisive and to blunder about in confusion - and despair! There was a happy thought.”

MindDifferentWholeStoriesTogetherChristAnswersDespairSmartToughLeavingConfusionExplanationOrganismsFragmentsBlundersScrewed UpHappy Thoughts
Author:Tom Clancy
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“It’s the leftover humans. The survivors. They’re the ones I can’t stand to look at, although on many occasions I still fail. I deliberately seek out the colors to keep my mind off them, but now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair, and surprises. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs. Which in turn brings me to the subject I am telling you about tonight, or today, or whatever the hour and color. It’s the story of one of those perpetual survivors –an expert at being left behind.”

MindHumansLooksHeartStillsI CanStoriesTodayTurnsLeftHoursBehindsFailingSubjectsColorDespairSurpriseRealizationWitnessOccasionsExpertsTonightSurvivorNow And ThenPerpetualBeatenPuzzlesLungsLeft BehindCrumblingJigsawJigsaw Puzzles
Author:Markus Zusak
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“Sometimes with the most intense pain a paralysis of sensibility occurs. The soul disintegrates--hence the deadly frost--the free power of the mind--the shattering, ceaseless wit of this kind of despair. There is no inclination for anything any more--the person is alone, like a baleful power--as he has no connection with the rest of the world he consumes himself gradually--and in accordance with his own principle he is--misanthropic and misotheos.”

WorldMindKindPersonsSoulSometimesPainPrinciplesDespairConnectionsWitIntenseSensibilityInclinationFrostParalysisPower Of The MindShatteringMisanthropicIntense Pain
Book:Novalis: Philosophical Writings
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“I don't know what God is, or what God had in mind when the universe was set in motion. In fact, I don't know if God even exists, although I confess that I sometimes find myself praying in times of great fear, or despair, or astonishment at a display of unexpected beauty.”

IfsKnowsMindSometimesFactsUniversePrayingDespairUnexpectedDisplayAstonishment
Book:Under The Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
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“Have you ever longed for someone so much, so deeply that you thought you would die? That your heart would just stop beating? I am longing now, but for whom I don't know. My whole body craves to be held. I am desperate to love and be loved. I want my mind to float into another's. I want to be set free from despair by the love I feel for another. I want to be physically part of someone else. I want to be joined. I want to be open and free to explore every part of them, as though I were exploring myself.”

KnowsWantFeelsMindHeartWholeBodyDiesDespairLongingDesperateExploringCraveFloats
Author:Tracey Emin
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“Your late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view to emancipating the slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like spirit would diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country; but I despair of seeing it.”

PeopleMindCountrySpiritHumanityViewsSeeingDespairLateSlaverySlaveNobleProofGenerousEstatesColony
Book:Writings: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts
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“Magic enables man to carry out with confidence his important tasks, to maintain his poise and his mental integrity in fits of anger, in the throes of hate, of unrequited love, of despair and anxiety. The function of magic is to ritualize man's optimism, to enhance his faith in the victory of hope over fear. Magic expresses the greater value for man of confidence over doubt, of steadfastness over vacillation, of optimism over pessimism.”

MenMindImportantScienceValuesHateDoubtGreaterMagicVictoryFitIntegrityDespairAnxietyTasksOptimismFunctionPessimismUnrequited LoveUnrequitedPoiseSteadfastnessVacillation
Author:Bronislaw Malinowski
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“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair - the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”

WorldWayWantWritingMindHeartEyeGirlNamesReadyDespairApproachPagesLet MeAssExcitementKicksChanging The WorldBlankHeart And MindFistsKick AssNervousnessBlank PagesHopefulness
Book:On Writing
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“You have not been mistaken in supposing my views and feeling to be in favor of the abolition of war. Of my dispos[i]tion to maintain peace until its condition shall be made less tolerable than that of war itself, the world has had proofs, and more, perhaps, than it has approved. I hope it is practicable, by improving the mind and morals of society, to lessen the dispos[i]tion to war; but of its abolition I despair.”

WorldMindMadeWarFeelingsPeaceViewsMoralConditionsDespairProofFavorsMistakenImprovingApprovedAbolitionTolerableSupposing
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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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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“It is because the world is so full of suffering, that your happiness is a gift. It is because the world is so full of poverty, that your wealth is a gift. It is because the world is so unfriendly, that your smile is a gift. It is because the world is so full of war, that your peace of mind is a gift. It is because the world is in such despair, that your hope and optimism is a gift. It is because the world is so afraid, that your love is a gift.”

WorldMindWarHappinessSufferingWealthLove IsPovertyDespairOptimismPeace Of MindYour SmileUnfriendlyOptimism And Hope
Book:Happiness Now!: Timeless Wisdom for Feeling Good Fast
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“With the situation as gray as it could be, no one was more conspicuous in his calm presence of mind than Washington. They must be "cool but determined" he had told the men before the battle, when spirits were high. Now, in the face of catastrophe, he was demonstrating what he meant by his own example. Whatever anger or torment or despair he felt, he kept to himself.”

MenMindFacesSpiritFeltSituationExampleHe ManBattleDespairCalmDeterminedGrayCatastropheTormentBeing CoolDemonstratingPresence Of Mind
Author:David McCullough
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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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“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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“Sandoz turned and accepted the book, looking at the spine. "Aeschylus?" Wordlessly, Guiuliani pointed out the passage, and Emilio studied it a while, slowly translating the Greek in his mind. Finally, he said, "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, againstour will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."”

MindHeartSaidBookPainFallSleepForgetGraceWords Of WisdomDespairAcceptedAwfulGreekPassagesTranslateGrace Of GodSpine
Author:Mary Doria Russell
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“The modern technological world appears overwhelming to many people. It drives some to pessimism and despair. It makes others doubt the future of mankind unless we retreat to simpler lives and even to the ways of our ancestors. What these people fail to realize is that we cannot go back to those ways and those days. Furthermore, for all our difficulties, life today is far better for more people and the possibilities for the future can be brighter than ever if we develop not only new knowledge, but a greater faith and confidence in the human mind and spirit.”

PeopleIfsWorldWayMindHumansTodaySpiritRealizingDoubtGreaterFailingModernMankindPossibilityDespairDifficultyHuman MindPessimismOverwhelmingAncestorTechnologicalRetreatBrighterNew KnowledgeFuture Of Mankind
Author:Glenn T. Seaborg
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