Depression is melancholy minus its charms—the animation, the fits.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
The madness of depression is the antithesis of violence. It is a storm indeed, but a storm of murk. Soon evident are the slowed-down responses, near paralysis, psychic energy throttled back close to zero. Ultimately, the body is affected and feels sapped, drained.
—William Styron (1925–2006) American Novelist, Essayist, Writer
If the heart of a man is depressed with cares, The mist is dispelled when a woman appears.
—John Gay (1685–1732) English Poet, Dramatist
Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.
—Dodie Smith (1896–1990) British Novelist, Playwright, Writer
Depression is a prison where you are both the suffering prisoner and the cruel jailer.
—Dorothy Rowe (1930–2019) Australian Psychologist, Author
For me being depressed means you can spend all day in bed, and still not get a good night’s rest.
—Unknown
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose your feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To believe is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes they are slaves; they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.
—Anonymous
You largely constructed your depression. It wasn’t given to you. Therefore, you can deconstruct it.
—Albert Ellis (1913–2007) American Psychologist
The term clinical depression finds its way into too many conversations these days. One has a sense that a catastrophe has occurred in the psychic landscape.
—Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian Singer, Songwriter, Poet, Novelist
Obviously, the real issue has nothing to do with fear itself, but, rather, how we hold the fear. For some, the fear is totally irrelevant. For others, it creates a state of paralysis. The former hold their fear from a position of power (choice, energy, and action), and the latter hold it from a position of pain (helplessness, depression, and paralysis).
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
I am in that temper that if I were under water I would scarcely kick to come to the top.
—John Keats (1795–1821) English Poet
Depression moods lead, almost invariably, to accidents. But, when they occur, our mood changes again, since the accident shows we can draw the world in our wake, and that we still retain some degree of power even when our spirits are low. A series of accidents creates a positively light-hearted state, out of consideration for this strange power.
—Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French Sociologist, Philosopher
Depression is the inability to construct a future.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
The point to remember is that when you blame any outside force for any of your experience of life, you are literally giving away all your power and thus creating pain, paralysis and depression.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
The world leans on us. When we sag, the whole world seems to droop.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
There exists, at the bottom of all abasement and misfortune, a last extreme which rebels and joins battle with the forces of law and respectability in a desperate struggle, waged partly by cunning and partly by violence, at once sick and ferocious, in which it attacks the prevailing social order with the pin-pricks of vice and the hammer-blows of crime.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Depression is rage spread thin.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
In addition to my other numerous acquaintances, I have one more intimate confidant. My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known—no wonder, then, that I return the love.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
The average man gets his living by such depressing devices that boredom becomes a sort of natural state to him.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
He did not mean to depress us, rather to free us from expectations which inspire bitterness. It is consoling, when love has let us down, to hear that happiness was never part of the plan.
—Alain de Botton (b.1969) Swiss-born British Philosopher, Author
You are innately designed to use your personal power. When you don’t, you experience a sense of helplessness, paralysis, and depression—which is your clue that something is not working as it could. You, like all of us, deserve everything that is wonderful and exciting in life. And those feelings emerge only when you get in touch with your powerful self.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
This is my “depressed stance.” When you’re depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand. The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you’ll start to feel better. If you’re going to get any joy out of being depressed, you’ve got to stand like this.
—Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) American Cartoonist, Writer, Artist
In depression…faith in deliverance, in ultimate restoration, is absent. The pain is unrelenting, and what makes the condition intolerable is the foreknowledge that no rememdy will come, not in a day, an hour, a month, or a minute. It is hopelessness even more than pain that crushes the soul.
—William Styron (1925–2006) American Novelist, Essayist, Writer
In all things it is better to hope than to despair.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Great men suffer hours of depression through introspection and self-doubt. That is why they are great. That is why you will find modesty and humility the characteristics of such men.
—Bruce Fairchild Barton (1886–1967) American Author, Advertising Executive, Politician
The reason why all men honor love is because it looks up, and not down; aspires and not despairs.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
—Steven Wright (b.1955) American Comedian, Actor, Writer
Human existence must be a kind of error…it may be said of it, ‘it is bad today and every day it will get worse, until the worst of all happens’.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Depression is anger without enthusiasm
—Anonymous
The only way to escape the abyss is to look at it, gauge it, sound it out and descend into it.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator