In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.
—Unknown
The depth of our despair measures what capability and height of claim we have to hope.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Despair, in short, seeks its own environment as surely as water finds its own level.
—Al Alvarez (1929–2019) English Critic, Poet, Novelist
All experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
To those who despair of everything reason cannot provide a faith, but only passion, and in this case it must be the same passion that lay at the root of the despair, namely humiliation and hatred.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
Despair gives courage to a coward.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
He that despairs degrades the Deity, and seems to intimate that He is insufficient, or not just to his word; in vain hath he read the Scriptures, the world, and man.
—Owen Feltham (1602–68) English Essayist
It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is omnipotent.
—Jeremy Taylor
Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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
Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
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
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 of Opera Seria
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
O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Now the standard cure for one who is sunk is to consider those in actual destitution or physical suffering.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
When the tide of life turns against you
And the current upsets your boat,
Don’t waste tears on what might have been,
Just lie on your back and float.
—Anonymous
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
Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
Intellectual despair results in neither weakness nor dreams, but in violence. It is only a matter of knowing how to give vent to one’s rage; whether one only wants to wander like madmen around prisons, or whether one wants to overturn them.
—Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French Essayist, Intellectual
Make sense who may. I switch off.
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) Irish Novelist, Playwright
What is courage? This courage will not be the opposite of despair. We shall often be faced with despair, as indeed every sensitive person has been during the last several decades in this country. Hence Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and Camus and Sartre have proclaimed that courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
Despair is the offspring of fear, of laziness, and impatience; it argues a delect of spirit and resolution, and often of honesty too. I would not despair unless I saw my misfortune recorded in the book of fate, and signed and sealed by necessity.
—Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) Anglican Church Historian, Clergyman
Depression is the inability to construct a future.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall—think of it, always.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
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
Then my verse I dishonor, my pictures despise, my person degrade and my temper chastise; and the pen is my terror, the pencil my shame; and my talents I bury, and dead is my fame.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Religion converts despair, which destroys, into resignation, which submits.
—Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789–1849) Irish Novelist, Literary Hostess
At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
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