Self-pity is a death that has no resurrection, a sinkhole from which no rescuing hand can drag you because you have chosen to sink.
—Elisabeth Elliot (b.1926) American Christian Author, Speaker
The human mind can bear plenty of reality, but not too much unintermittent gloom.
—Margaret Drabble (b.1939) English Novelist, Biographer, Critic, Short Story Writer
Despair is criminal.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
He’s simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.
—Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) (1870–1916) British Short Story Writer, Satirist, Historian
When you find yourself overpowered, as it were, by melancholy, the best way is to go out and do something.
—John Keble (1792–1866) English Religious Leader
Grumbling is the death of love.
—Marlene Dietrich (1901–92) German-born American Actor, Singer
Sympathy is never wasted except when you give it to yourself.
—John W. Raper (1870–1950) American Journalist, Aphorist
The best mask for demoralization is daring.
—Lucian (c.120–c.200 CE) Greek Satirist, Rhetorician, Writer
Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool.
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967) French Novelist, Biographer
You can overcome anything if you don’t bellyache.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Misery is a communicable disease.
—Martha Graham (1894–1991) American Choreographer
Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
What poison is to food, self-pity is to life.
—Oliver G. Wilson
Worldly desires are like sunbeams in a dark room. They seem solid until you try to grasp one.
—Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810) Ukrainian Jewish Rabbi
He who complains, sins.
—Francis de Sales (1567–1622) French Catholic Saint
Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Self-pity is our worst enemy, and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
Without ever having felt sorry for itself.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
The great thing in the world is to know how to be sufficient unto oneself.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Optimism and self-pity are the positive and negative poles of modern cowardice.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
Self-pity is one of the most dangerous forms of self-centeredness. It fogs our vision.
—Unknown
I am convinced, the longer I live, that life and its blessings are not so entirely unjustly distributed as when we are suffering greatly we are inclined to suppose.
—Mary Todd Lincoln (1818–82) American First lady
Every message of despair is the statement of a situation from which everybody must freely try to find a way out.
—Eugene Ionesco (1909–94) Romanian-born French Dramatist
To hear complaints is wearisome alike to the wretched and the happy.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure is occupaton.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It’s amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges and scrub the floor.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
This life is not for complaint, but for satisfaction.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher