“Anyone who has read Yeats's wonderful Autobiography will remember his Sligo shabby, shadowed, half country and half sea, full of confused romance, superstition, poverty, eccentricity, unrecognized anachronism, passion and ignorance and the little boy's misery. Yeats was treated well but was bitterly unhappy; he prayed that he would die, and used often to say to himself: "When you are grown up, never talk as grown-up people do of the happiness of childhood.” PeopleWellsLittlesCountryRememberRomanceUsedDiesPassionHalfBoysPovertyWonderfulSeaChildhoodIgnoranceMiseryUnhappyTreatedConfusedSuperstitionsAutobiographyLittle BoysEccentricityShabbyYeatsAnachronism Author:Randall Jarrell
“In this country we're unprecedentedly safe, comfortable, and well fed, with more and better venues for stimulation. And yet if you were asked, 'Is this a happy or unhappy country?' you'd check the 'unhappy' box. We're living in an era of emotional poverty, which is something that serious drug addicts feel most keenly.” IfsFeelsWellsCountryPovertyEmotionalSeriousDrugSafeComfortableBoxesUnhappyChecksErasFedsAddictDrug AddictVenuesStimulation Author:David Foster Wallace
“Confronted with the unhappy facts of exclusion, we sometimes reassure ourselves by telling stories: the poor boys who made it, theblacks who became a "credit to their race," the women elected to high office, the handicapped who made "useful contributions" to our society.... Just as we believe in the self-sufficient family, we also believe that any child with enough grit and ability can escape poverty and make a rewarding life. But these stories and beliefs clearly reflect the exceptions.” BelieveChildrenMadeSelfSometimesEnoughFactsStoriesBeliefAbilityPoorRaceBoysPovertyOfficeCreditUnhappyMade ItSufficientContributionExceptionOur SocietyGritExclusionTelling StoriesSelf SufficientHandicappedPoor Boy Book:All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure Source: All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure
“Choice! The key is choice. You have options. You need not spend your life wallowing in failure, ignorance, grief, poverty, shame, and self-pity. But hold on! If this is true then why have so many among us apparently elected to live in this manner? The answer is obvious. Those who live in unhappy failure have never exercised their options for a better way of life because they have never been aware that had any choices” IfsWayNeedsSelfChoicesAnswersGriefPovertyIgnoranceKeysShameObviousUnhappyPityBetter WaysSelf PityWallowing Author:Og Mandino
“There's an awful lot of white British kids who have never really gone hungry, always had a roof to live under but at the same time are desperately unhappy. It's not total poverty, just a poverty of ideas.” IdeasKidsWhitePovertyGoneBritishHungryUnhappyAwfulRoof Author:Richey Edwards
“I think a lot about the poems I wasn't able to write...I masturbrated...Solitude is essentially a matter of pride; you bury yourself in your own scent. The issue is the same for all real poets. If you've been happy for too long, you become banal. By the same token, if you've been unhappy for a long time, you lose your poetic power...Happiness and poverty can only coexist for the briefest time. Afterword either happiness coarsens the poet or the poem is so true it destroys his happiness.” IfsThinkingWritingLongRealMatterAbleLosesPovertyIssuesPoetPrideSolitudeLong TimeUnhappyPoeticScentTokensCoexist Author:Orhan Pamuk