Tragedy is like strong acid—it dissolves away all but the very gold of truth.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
Tragedy warms the soul, elevates the heart, and can and ought to create heroes. In this sense, perhaps, France owes a part of her great actions to Corneille.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
—Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717–97) English Art Historian, Man of Letters, Politician
A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
The stabbing horror of life is not contained in calamities and disasters, because these things wake one up and one gets very familiar and intimate with them and finally they become tame again. No, it is more like being in a hotel room in Hoboken let us say, and just enough money in one’s pocket for another meal.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
Tragedy delights by affording a shadow of the pleasure which exists in pain.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Revenge is a confession of pain.
—Latin Proverb
We know nothing of tomorrow; our business is to be good and happy today.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
When you close your eyes to tragedy, you close your eyes to greatness.
—Stephen Vizinczey (1933–2021) Hungarian-Canadian Writer
The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life’s tragedy.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
A great calamity is as old as the trilobites an hour after it has happened.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Commonplace people dislike tragedy because they dare not suffer and cannot exult.
—John Masefield (1878–1967) English Poet, Novelist, Playwright
It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is a sin.
—Benjamin Mays (1894–1984) American Minister, Educator, Scholar, Social Activist
It was no great tragedy being Judy Garland’s daughter. I had tremendously interesting childhood years—except they had little to do with being a child.
—Liza Minnelli (b.1946) American Singer, Actress
The closer a man approaches tragedy the more intense is his concentration of emotion upon the fixed point of his commitment, which is to say the closer he approaches what in life we call fanaticism.
—Arthur Miller (1915–2005) American Playwright, Essayist
The greatest tragedy in America is not the destruction of our natural resources, though that tragedy is great. The truly great tragedy is the destruction of our human resources by our failure to fully utilize our abilities, which means that most men and women go to their graves with their music still in them.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Tragedy on the stage is no longer enough for me, I shall bring it into my own life.
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French Actor, Drama Theorist
The little word is has its tragedies: it marries and identifies different things with the greatest innocence; and yet no two are ever identical, and if therein lies the charm of wedding them and calling them one, therein too lies the danger.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
Tragedy is a representation of action that is worthy of serious attention, complete in itself and of some magnitude – bringing about by means of pity and fear the purging of such emotions.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
The compensations of calamity are made apparent to the understanding also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, seems at the moment unpaid loss, and unpayable. But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all facts.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Getting used to our blessings is one of the most important nonevil generators of human evil, tragedy and suffering.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is now no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Down went the owners—greedy men whom hope of gain allured: oh, dry the starting tear, for they were heavily insured.
—W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) English Dramatist, Librettist, Poet, Illustrator
In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. The last is much the worst; the last is a real tragedy!
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
We participate in tragedy. At comedy we only look.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
It’s not the tragedies that kill us, it’s the messes.
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
It is restful, tragedy, because one knows that there is no more lousy hope left. You know you’re caught, caught at last like a rat with all the world on its back. And the only thing left to do is shout—not moan, or complain, but yell out at the top of your voice whatever it was you had to say. What you’ve never said before. What perhaps you don’t even know till now.
—Jean Anouilh (1910–87) French Dramatist
When any calamity has been suffered, the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending.
—William Dean Howells (1837–1920) American Novelist, Critic
You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks.
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-born British Philosopher
The true end of tragedy is to purify the passions.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Perhaps catastrophe is the natural human environment, and even though we spend a good deal of energy trying to get away from it, we are programmed for survival amid catastrophe.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
I’ve come to realize that life is not a musical comedy, it’s a Greek tragedy.
—Billy Joel (b.1949) American Singer, Songwriter, Musician
What quarrel, what harshness, what unbelief in each other can subsist in the presence of a great calamity, when all the artificial vesture of our life is gone, and we are all one with each other in primitive mortal needs?
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Only a great mind that is overthrown yields tragedy.
—Jacques Barzun (b.1907) French-born American Historian, Philosophers