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
Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Activist
The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure is occupation.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Sympathy is never wasted except when you give it to yourself.
—John W. Raper (1870–1950) American Journalist, Aphorist
To hear complaints is wearisome alike to the wretched and the happy.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The cure for grief is motion.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
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, Critic
Optimism and self-pity are the positive and negative poles of modern cowardice.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
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 Anglican Priest, Poet
The best mask for demoralization is daring.
—Lucian (c.120–c.200 CE) Greek Satirist, Rhetorician, Writer
Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
Grumbling is the death of love.
—Marlene Dietrich (1901–92) German-American Film Actress, Cabaret Performer
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, Critic
He’s simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.
—Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) (1870–1916) British Short Story Writer, Satirist, Historian
Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
The human mind can bear plenty of reality, but not too much unintermittent gloom.
—Margaret Drabble (b.1939) English Novelist, Critic, Biographer, Short Story Writer
Of all the infirmities we have, the most savage is to despise our being.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
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
Self-pity is one of the most dangerous forms of self-centeredness. It fogs our vision.
—Unknown
Misery is a communicable disease.
—Martha Graham (1894–1991) American Choreographer
Even the cry from the depths is an affirmation: why cry if there is no hint of hope of hearing?
—Martin E. Marty (1928–2025) American Lutheran Theologian, Religious Historian
Self-pity is the most destructive of all narcotics.
—Sebastian Horsley (1962–2010) English Painter, Author
Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a man deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone else in order to taste the rotten luxury of knowing himself to be lost.
—Thomas Merton (1915–68) American Trappist Monk
Never give way to melancholy; resist it steadily, for the habit will encroach.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
In life so wretched? Isn’t it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddied? You are the one who must grow up.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
Despair is criminal.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
He who complains, sins.
—Francis de Sales (1567–1622) French Catholic Saint
This life is not for complaint, but for satisfaction.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
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