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Despair Quotes

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Despair Quotes

“To disguise nothing, to conceal nothing, to write about those things that are closest to our pain, our happiness; to write about our sexual clumsiness, the agonies of Tantalus, the depth of our discouragement-what we glimpse in our dreams-our despair. To write about the foolish agonies of anxiety, the refreshment of our strength when these are ended; to write about our painful search for self, jeopardized by a stranger in the post office, a half-seen face in a train window, to write about the continents and populations of our dreams, about love and death, good and evil, the end of the world.”

WorldWritingEndsSelfDreamPainFacesEvilHalfDespairOfficeAnxietyWindowTrainDepthPopulationPainfulStrangerFoolishPostsGood And EvilContinentsClosestAgonyDisguiseGlimpseOur DreamsEnd Of The WorldDiscouragementLove And DeathPost OfficeRefreshmentsClumsiness
Author:John Cheever
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“In a world of discouragement, sorrow, and overmuch sin, in times when fear and despair seem to prevail, when humanity is feverish with no worldly physicians in sigh, I too say, Trust Jesus. Let Him still the tempest and ride upon the storm. Believe that He can lift mankind from its bed of affliction, in time and in eternity.”

WorldBelieveStillsSeemsHumanityJesusSinMankindSorrowBedDespairEternityStormLiftsPhysiciansAfflictionWorldlySighDiscouragementTempest
Author:Jeffrey R. Holland
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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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“Two world wars, three monstrous dictatorships-in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, Red China-plus every lesser variant of devastating socialist experimentation in a global spread of brutality and despair, have not prompted modern intellectuals to question or revise their dogma. They still think that it is daring, idealistic and unconventional to denounce the rich. They still believe that money is the root of all evil-except government money, which is the solution to all problems.”

ThinkingWorldBelieveStillsTwoWarProblemGovernmentThreeEvilRichModernDespairSolutionsRedRootsChinaSpreadRussiaWar Of The WorldsGermanyPlusSovietDaringDogmaDictatorshipSocialistNaziBrutalityMonstrousExperimentationTwo WorldsIdealisticNazi GermanyUnconventionalSoviet RussiaMoney Is The Root Of All Evil
Author:Ayn Rand
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“The saddest thing in the world was that human beings, for all their ardent striving and desire, could never achieve physical, emotional, or intellectual perfection. The species was doomed to imperfection; it thrashed forever in despair or denial of that fact.”

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Book:Dark Rivers of the Heart: A Novel
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“There's an inherent limit to the stress that any material can bear. Water has its boiling point, metals their melting points. The elements of the spirit behave the same way. Happiness can reach a pitch so great that any further happiness can't be felt. Pain, despair, humiliation, disgust, and fear are no different. Once the vessel is full, the world can't add to it.”

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Book:The Post-office Girl
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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.”

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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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“As a general rule, those who are dissatisfied with themselves will seek to go out of themselves into an ideal world. Persons in strong health and spirits, who take plenty of air and exercise, who are "in favor with, their stars," and have a thorough relish of the good things of this life, seldom devote themselves in despair to religion or the muses. Sedentary, nervous, hypochondriacal people, on the contrary, are forced, for want of an appetite for the real and substantial, to look out for a more airy food and speculative comforts.”

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Author:William Hazlitt
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“All the ideals and beliefs you ever had have crashed about your gun-deafened ears - you don't believe in God or them or the infallibility of England or anything but bloody war and wounds and foul smells and smutty stories and smoke and bombs and lice and filth and noise, noise, noise - you live in a world of cold sick fear, a dirty world of darkness and despair - you want to crawl ignominiously home away from these painful writhing things that once were men, these shattered, tortured faces that dumbly demand what it's all about in Christ's name.”

MenWorldWantBelieveWarStoriesHomeFacesNamesBeliefChristDarknessColdDemandDespairGunIdealsEarsSickEnglandDon't BelievePainfulSmellWoundsNoiseSmokeDirtyBombsBelieve In GodBloodyFoulShatteredFilthInfallibilityLiceDirty World
Author:Evadne Price
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“One reads the truer deeper facts of Reconstruction with a great despair. It is at once so simple and human, and yet so futile. There is no villain, no idiot, no saint. There are just men; men who crave ease and power, men who know want and hunger, men who have crawled. They all dream and strive with ecstasy of fear and strain of effort, balked of hope and hate. Yet the rich world is wide enough for all, wants all, needs all. So slight a gesture, a word, might set the strife in order, not with full content, but with growing dawn of fulfillment. Instead roars the crash of hell.”

KnowsMenWorldWantNeedsHumansEnoughFactsDreamMightHateOrderSimpleEffortHellRichGrowingDespairStriveSaintHungerDeeperWideIdiotEaseDawnFulfillmentEcstasyVillainGesturesCrashStrifeStrainCraveReconstructionPower Man
Book:Black Reconstruction in America: Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880
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“Do not despair! Work steadily. Sincerity and love will conquer hate. How many seemingly impossible events are coming to pass in these days! Set your faces steadily towards the Light of the World. Show love to all... Take courage! God never forsakes His children who strive and work and pray! Let your hearts be filled with the strenuous desire that tranquillity and harmony may encircle all this warring world. So will success crown your efforts, and with the universal brotherhood will come the Kingdom of God in peace and goodwill.”

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Author:Abdu'l-Bahá
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“Robin [Williams] was a world treasure. As we mourn his tragic death, we must remember him for the great waves of laughter that he was able to illicit from us, how his humor and insights - though they came from a place of pain and uncertainty - connected us and reminded us of how flawed and fragile...how human we are. How we are capable of moments of inspired transcendence and others of unspeakable despair.”

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Author:Glenn Close
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“This is the first time in history that a war has involved the whole world, and also it may last many years more; this thought is soul-shattering for all of us as human beings. It is horrible to think that the crimes committed by this one man Hitler have these many years been destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands and millions, and one would despair entirely were it not certain that the majority, the innumerable majority which opposes him openly or secretly, will succeed in wiping out once and for all him and his.”

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Book:Stefan and Friderike Zweig: their correspondence, 1912-1942
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“That's a heavy word, but picking up a newspaper every day, how can you not despair at what's happening in the world, and how we're represented as human beings? The disappointments and corruption are dismaying at every level. And the biggest source of evil is of course religion... Everyone are tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshipping the same god.”

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Author:Ridley Scott
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“Unrestrained automobility, hedonism, individualism, and conspicuous consumption cannot be sustained because they take more than they give back. A spiritually impoverished world cannot be sustained because meaninglessness, anomie, and despair will corrode the desire to be sustained and the belief that humanity is worth sustaining. But these are the very things that distinguish the modern age from its predecessors, Genuine sustainability, in other words, will come not from superficial changes but from a deeper process akin to humankind growing up to a fuller stature.”

WorldGivingAgeDesireHumanityBeliefProcessGrowing UpGrowingModernDespairEnvironmentalDeeperGenuineIndividualismSustainabilityHumankindConsumptionSuperficialGiving BackStatureSustainingPredecessorsMeaninglessnessHedonismModern AgeConspicuous ConsumptionAnomie
Author:David W. Orr
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“There is message to the community that a non-governmental process is underway to bring about social change, it's a public one, and people like Margaret Thatcher, George Bush, and Mikhail Gorbachev are throwing their weight behind it. In a world where there's a lot of cynicism and despair, this has a candle-lighting effect.”

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Author:Ram Dass
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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.”

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Author:David Starkey
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“If democracy is ever to be threatened, it will not be by revolutionary groups burning government offices and occupying the broadcasting and newspaper offices of the world. It will come from disenchantment, cynicism and despair caused by the realisation that the New World Order means we are all to be managed and not represented.”

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Author:Tony Benn
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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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“The world surely has not another place like Oxford; it is a despair to see such a place and ever to leave it, for it would take a lifetime and more than one to comprehend and enjoy it satisfactorily.”

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Book:Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of
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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 struggle to create a nation and world of economic and social justice and environmental sanity is not an easy one. The struggle to try and create a more peaceful world will be extremely difficult. But this I know: despair is not an option if we care about our kids and grandchildren. Giving up is not an option if we want to prevent irreparable harm to our planet.”

IfsKnowsWorldWantGivingTryingCareKidsNationsSocialEasyDifficultJusticeStruggleEconomicPlanetsDespairGiving UpSocial JusticeEnvironmentalHarmPeacefulSanityGrandchildrenOur PlanetGiving Up Is Not An OptionPeaceful WorldEconomic JusticeIrreparableIrreparable Harm
Author:Bernie Sanders
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“That the language of the poetry of Jamaican music is rastafarian or biblical language cannot simply be put down to the colonizer and his satanic missionaries. The fact is that the historical experience of the black Jamaican is an experience of the most acute human suffering, desolation and despair in the cruel world that is the colonial world.”

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Author:Linton Kwesi Johnson
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