He who despairs wants love and faith, for faith, hope, and love are three torches which blend their light together, nor does the one shine without the other.
—Metastasio (1698–1782) Italian Poet, Librettist
With the situation as gray as it could be, no one was more conspicuous in his calm presence of mind than Washington. They must be “cool but determined” he had told the men before the battle, when spirits were high. Now, in the face of catastrophe, he was demonstrating what he meant by his own example. Whatever anger or torment or despair he felt, he kept to himself.
—David McCullough (1933–2022) American Historian
Despair, in short, seeks its own environment as surely as water finds its own level.
—Al Alvarez (1929–2019) English Critic, Poet, Novelist
He that despairs measures Providence by his own little contracted model and limits infinite power to finite apprehensions.
—Robert South (1634–1716) English Theologian, Preacher
Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
In all things it is better to hope than to despair.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Through our sunless lanes creeps Poverty with her hungry eyes, and Sin with his sodden face follows close behind her. Misery wakes us in the morning and Shame sits with us at night.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Melancholy has ceased to be an individual phenomenon, an exception. It has become the class privilege of the wage earner, a mass state of mind that finds its cause wherever life is governed by production quotas.
—Gunter Grass (1927–2015) German Novelist, Poet
Despair is perfectly compatible with a good dinner, I promise you.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
If we are to find our way across toubled waters, we are better served by the company of those who have built bridges, who have moved beyond despair and inertia.
—Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American Author, Speaker, Consultant
Fatalism is the lazy man’s way of accepting the inevitable.
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972) American Playwright, Poet, Novelist
There is nobody more terrible than the desperate.
—Alexander Suvorov (1729–1800) Russian Military Strategist
Depression is the inability to construct a future.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
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
Washington was a man of exceptional, almost excessive self-command, rarely permitting himself any show of discouragement or despair.
—David McCullough (1933–2022) American Historian
Despair is the only genuine atheism.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Philosopher
The person who lives by hope will die by despair.
—Italian Proverb
Life begins on the other side of despair.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Activist
It is not hard to live through a day, if you can live through a moment. What creates despair is the imagination, which pretends there is a future, and insists on predicting millions of moments, thousands of days, and so drains you that you cannot live the moment at hand.
—Andre Dubus (1936–99) American Short Story Writer, Essayist
What is most original in a man’s nature is often that which is most desperate. Thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. If Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn’t have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.
—Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian Singer, Songwriter, Poet, Novelist
Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
Resignation, not mystic, not detached, but resignation open-eyed, conscious, and informed by love, is the only one of our feelings for which it is impossible to become a sham.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
Make sense who may. I switch off.
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) Irish Novelist, Playwright
Religion converts despair, which destroys, into resignation, which submits.
—Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789–1849) Irish Novelist, Literary Hostess
Voluptuaries, consumed by their senses, always begin by flinging themselves with a great display of frenzy into an abyss. But they survive, they come to the surface again. And they develop a routine of the abyss: “It’s four o clock. At five I have my abyss… “
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
The fact that God has prohibited despair gives misfortune the right to hope all things, and leaves hope free to dare all things.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
We’d like to fight but we fear defeat, we’d like to work but we’re feeling too weak, we’d like to be sick but we’d get the sack, we’d like to behave, we’d like to believe, we’d like to love, but we’ve lost the knack.
—Cecil Day-Lewis (1904–72) British Poet, Critic
Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.
—William S. Burroughs (1914–97) American Novelist, Poet, Short Story Writer, Painter
In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright
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