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Despair Quotes

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Despair Quotes

“When we think of the height of God's infinity we should not despair of His compassion reaching us from such a height; and when we recall the infinite depth of our fall through sin we should not refuse to believe that the virtue which has been killed in us will rise again. For God can accomplish both these things: He can come down and illumine our intellect with spiritual knowledge, and He can raise up the virtue within us and exalt it with Himself through works of righteousness.”

ThinkingShouldBelieveHas BeensChristianSpiritualFallSinCompassionVirtueDespairInfiniteDown AndRaisesDepthRefuseAccomplishIntellectHeightReachingOrthodoxRighteousnessInfinityRecallsRaise UpSpiritual Knowledge
Author:Maximus the Confessor
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“What should we do? We have no wish to interrupt the destroyer's work of saving lives... But war is war and the people being picked up out of the water are soldiers bound for the front; soldiers who are to shoot at our German brothers... The question whether we are to perish in despair or defiance, or survive all trails with a live conscience, depends wholly and solely on whether we believe in the forgiveness of sins. This 25th January was the turning point in my life, because it opened my eyes to the utter impossibility of a moral universe.”

PeopleShouldBelieveWarEyeUniverseWishWaterSinMoralFrontsBrotherDependsDespairConscienceBoundsSoldierSavingTrailsImpossibilityDefianceJanuaryTurning PointsDestroyersSave A LifeForgiveness Of Sins
Author:Martin Niemoller
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“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.”

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Author:Charles Godfrey Leland
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“God indeed tempteth no man; but yet we ask, in this petition, that he would keep and preserve us, lest the devil, the world, and our own flesh delude and draw us away from the true faith, and throw us into superstition, distrust, despair, and other grievous sins and wickedness; and that, if we should be tempted therewith even to the highest degree, we still may conquer, and at last triumph over them.”

IfsMenWorldShouldMayStillsLastsAsksSinDespairDegreesHighestDrawsDevilFleshConquerTriumphPreservesSuperstitionsDistrustTemptedWickednessPetitionsTrue Faith
Book:Martin Luther's Table Talk
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“I attacked those Western playwrights who use their influence and affluence to preach to the world the nihilistic doctrine that life is pointless and irrationally destructive, and that there is nothing we can do about it. Until everyone is fed, clothed, housed and taught, until human beings have equal leisure to contemplate the overwhelming fact of mortality, we should not (I argued) indulge in the luxury of "privileged despair."”

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Author:Kenneth Tynan
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“I believe that a person should take an affirmative outlook. There are always problems in life, old and new, uncertainties, and unexpected contingencies. The optimal way to deal with this is not to give up in despair, but to move ahead using the best intelligence and resources that we have to overcome adversity.”

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Author:Paul Kurtz
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“Surely it should be a matter of moral responsibility that we humans, different from other animals mainly by virtue of our more highly developed intellect and, with it, our greater capacity for understanding and compassion, ensure that medical progress slowly detaches its roots from the manure of non-human animal suffering and despair.”

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Author:Jane Goodall
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“Hope, and fear. Twin forces that tugged at us first in one direction and then in another, and which was the stronger no one could say. Of the latter we never spoke, but it was always with us. Fear, constant companion of the peasant. Hunger, ever at hand to jog his elbow should he relax. Despair, ready to engulf him should he falter. Fear; fear of the dark future; fear of the sharpness of hunger; fear of the blackness of death.”

ShouldFirstsHandsForceDarkPovertyReadyDespairStrongerConstantHungerRelaxLatterSpokesCompanionTwinsPeasantsBlacknessElbowsOne DirectionHopes And FearsSharpness
Book:Nectar in a sieve and related readings
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“Common sense should tell us that reading is the ultimate weapon--destroying ignorance, poverty and despair before they can destroyus. A nation that doesn't read much doesn't know much. And a nation that doesn't know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box and the voting booth...The challenge, therefore, is to convince future generations of children that carrying a book is more rewarding than carrying guns.”

KnowsShouldChildrenBookHomeChoicesReadingNationsChallengesPoorCommonPovertyGenerationsIgnoranceDespairWeaponsGunUltimateBoxesCommon SenseVotingConvinceDestroyingFuture GenerationMarketplaceJuryPoor ChoicesCarrying Guns
Book:The Read-aloud Handbook
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“My God, whose son, as on this night, took on Him the form of man, and for man vouchsafed to suffer and bleed, controls thy hand, and without His behest, thou canst not strike a stroke. My God is sinless, eternal, all-wise, and in Him is my trust, and though stripped and crushed by thee, -though naked, desolate, void of resource- I do not despair:where the lance of Guthrum now wet with my blood, I should not despair. I watch, I toil, I hope, I pray: Jehovah, in His own time, will aid.”

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Book:The Professor
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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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“I think it's probably true that creative people are touched by melancholy more than the average person, and to the extent that delving into that shadow world produces good work, I'm all for it. But I think you have to be able to step back from the work, and say, "Look how miserable I felt. Look how beautifully I wrote about it. Now I'm going to get an iced coffee and chat with a friend." Writing should be a way out of despair.”

PeopleThinkingWorldWayShouldWritingLooksPersonsAbleFeltStepsCreativeProduceDespairShadowAverageCoffeeMiserableTouchedMelancholyGood WorkCreative PeopleAverage PersonDelving
Author:David Starkey
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“To write with taste, in the highest sense, is to write [...] so that no one commits suicide, no one despairs; to write [...] so that people understand, sympathize, see the universality of pain, and feel strengthened, if not directly encouraged to live on. If there is good to be said, the writer should say it. If there is bad to be said, he should say it in a way that reflects the truth that, though we see the evil, we choose to continue among the living. The true artist [...] gets his sense of worth and honor from his conviction that art is powerful--”

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Author:John Gardner
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“When writing goes painfully, when it’s hideously difficult, and one feels real despair (ah, the despair, silly as it is, is real!)–then naturally one ought to continue with the work; it would be cowardly to retreat. But when writing goes smoothly–why then one certainly should keep on working, since it would be stupid to stop. Consequently one is always writing or should be writing.”

FeelsShouldWritingRealWould BeDifficultStupidOughtDespairSillyWorking ItRetreatCowardly
Author:Joyce Carol Oates
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“It's despair at the lack of feeling, of love, of reason in the world. It's despair that anyone can even contemplate the idea of dropping a bomb or ordering that it should be dropped. It's despair that so few of us care. It's despair that there's so much brutality and callousness in the world. It's despair that perfectly normal young men can be made vicious and evil because they've won a lot of money. And then do what you've done to me.”

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Author:John Fowles
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“Should Disappointment, parent of Despair, Strive for her son to seize my careless heart; When, like a cloud, he sits upon the air, Preparing on his spell-bound prey to dart: Chase him away, sweet Hope, with visage bright, And fright him as the morning frightens night!”

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Book:The complete poetical works and letters of John Keats
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“A smile flickered across Coral’s face. “Have you ever noticed that once you have had a taste of certain sweets—raspberry trifle is my own despair—it is quite impossible not to think, not to want, not to crave until you have taken another bite?” “Lord Swartingham is not a raspberry trifle.” “No, more of a dark chocolate mousse, I should think,” Coral murmured. “And,” Anna continued as if she hadn’t heard the interruption, “I don’t need another bite, uh,night of him.”

IfsThinkingWantNeedsShouldFacesNightCertainDarkMy OwnLordTakenImpossibleHeardSweetTasteDespairChocolateBitesCraveTriflesAnnaInterruptionsDark ChocolateRaspberriesChocolate Mousse
Author:Elizabeth Hoyt
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“Now he realized the truth: that sacrifice was no purchase of freedom. It was like a great elective office, it was like an inheritance of power - to certain people at certain times an essential luxury, carrying with it not a guarantee but a responsibility, not a security but an infinite risk. Its very momentum might drag him down to ruin - the passing of the emotional wave that made it possible might leave the one who made it high and dry forever on an island of despair...Sacrifice by its very nature was arrogant and impersonal; sacrifice should be eternally supercilious.”

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Book:The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works
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“...we should all fortify ourselves against the dark hours of depression by cultivating a deep distrust of the certainties of despair. Despair is relentless in the certainties of its pessimism. But we have seen again and again, from our own experience and others', that absolute statements of hopelessness that we make in the dark are notoriously unreliable. Our dark certainties are not sureties.”

ShouldHoursDarkDespairAbsolutesStatementsCertaintyPessimismAgain And AgainHopelessnessDistrustRelentlessCultivatingUnreliableDark Hours
Author:John Piper
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“So one must be resigned to being a clock that measures the passage of time, now out of order, now repaired, and whose mechanism generates despair and love as soon as its maker sets it going? Are we to grow used to the idea that every man relives ancient torments, which are all the more profound because they grow comic with repetition? That human existence should repeat itself, well and good, but that it should repeat itself like a hackneyed tune, or a record a drunkard keeps playing as he feeds coins into the jukebox.”

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Author:Stanislaw Lem
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“That should be your town motto. It's all I ever hear. Like: New Hampshire, Live Free or Die. It should be: Despair, You Need To Leave Now.”

NeedsShouldDiesDespairTownsMottoLive FreeHampshireNew Hampshire
Book:The Essential Jack Reacher, Volume 1, 7-Book Bundle: Persuader, The Enemy, One Shot, The Hard Way, Bad Luck and Trouble, Nothing to Lose, Gone Tomorrow
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“A universe without purpose should neither depress us nor suggest that our lives are purposeless. Through an awe-inspiring cosmic history we find ourselves on this remote planet in a remote corner of the universe, endowed with intelligence and self-awareness. We should not despair, but should humbly rejoice in making the most of these gifts, and celebrate our brief moment in the sun.”

ShouldSelfMomentsPurposeUniverseExistenceHistorySunOur LivesAwarenessPlanetsDespairSelf AwarenessIntentionIntelligenceCornersHumbleCelebrateMeaning Of LifeAweExistentialismCosmicRejoiceDepressingAwe InspiringBrief MomentsRemotenessPurposelessness
Author:Lawrence M. Krauss
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“I assert once again as a truth to which history as a whole bears witness that men may second their fortune, but cannot oppose it; that they may weave its warp, but cannot break it. Yet they should never give up, because there is always hope, though they know not the end and more towards it along roads which cross one another and as yet are unexplored; and since there is hope, they should not despair, no matter what fortune brings or in what travail they find themselves.”

KnowsMenGivingShouldMayArtWarEndsMatterWholeBreakBearsDespairGiving UpCrossesNo Matter WhatFortuneWitnessNever Giving UpArt Of WarThere Is HopeWarpUnexploredLong Road
Author:Niccolo Machiavelli
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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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“That the fundamental aspects of heredity should have turned out to be so extraordinarily simple supports us in the hope that nature may, after all, be entirely approachable. Her much-advertised inscrutability has once more been found to be an illusion due to our ignorance. This is encouraging, for, if the world in which we live were as complicated as some of our friends would have us believe we might well despair that biology could ever become an exact science.”

IfsWorldShouldBelieveWellsMayMightFoundSimpleSupportIgnoranceDespairIllusionAspectShould HaveFundamentalsSimplicityComplicatedDuesIgnorantBiologyHeredityExact Sciences
Book:The Physical basis of heredity
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“I realized that my circumstances, while causing me despair and heartbreak, also held great possibility, if only I could see it. I knew that I was learning one of the most important lessons of my life: that instead of waiting for the perfect opportunity, I should work toward a realization that every opportunity is perfect. Each moment is perfect and heaven-sent, in that each moment holds the seeds for growth. Difficulty creates the opportunity for self-reflection and compassion.”

IfsShouldImportantSelfMomentsOpportunityHeavenWaitingGrowthPerfectCompassionPossibilityCircumstancesLessonsDespairReflectionDifficultyLuckSeedsI RealizedRealizationSelf ReflectionImportant LessonsHeaven Sent
Author:Suzan-Lori Parks
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“Wilderness is an anchor to windward. Knowing it is there, we can also know that we are still a rich nation, tending our resources as we should - not a people in despair searching every last nook and cranny of our land for a board of lumber, a barrel of oil, a blade of grass, or a tank of water.”

PeopleKnowsShouldStillsLastsNationsWaterKnowingRichLandDespairResourcesOilGrassBoardsWildernessBladesTanksAnchorsBarrelsNature And EnvironmentBlades Of GrassLumber
Author:Clinton Presba Anderson
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