Despair

      There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope. ~ George Eliot

      Quotes regarding despair.

      Quotes

      Alphabetized by author
      Let despair be known
      as my ebb-tide; but let prayer
      have its springs, too, brimming,
      disarming him; discovering somewhere
      among his fissures deposits of mercy
      where trust may take root and grow. ~ R. S. Thomas
      Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. ~ Elie Wiesel
      • There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope.
      • Come, come, whoever you are.
        Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving — it doesn't matter,
        Ours is not a caravan of despair.
        Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times,
        Come, come again, come.
        • Rumi. as quoted in Sunbeams : A Book of Quotations (1990) by Sy Safransky, p. 67
        • Variant translations:
          Come, come, whoever you are.
          Wanderer, idolator, worshipper of fire, come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
          Come, and come yet again. Ours is not a caravan of despair.
          • As quoted in Muslim Narratives and the Discourse of English (2004) by Amin Malak, p. 151
        • Come, come, whoever you are.
          Wanderer, worshipper, lover of living, it doesn't matter
          Ours is not a caravan of despair.
          Come even if you have broken your vow a thousand times,
          Come, yet again, come, come.
          • As quoted in Rumi and His Sufi Path of Love (2007) by M Fatih Citlak and Huseyin Bingul, p. 81.
      • If either the absence or the presence of novelty is equally annoying, it would hardly seem that either could be the true cause of despair.
        • Bertrand Russell, in Conquest of Happiness (1930), Chapter 2: Byronic Unhappiness.
      • Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid and malignant race. As a bankrupt thief turns thief-taker in despair, so an unsuccessful author turns critic.
        • Percy Bysshe Shelley, in "Fragments of Adonais" in Relics of Shelley (1862) edited by Richard Garnett.
      • Let despair be known
        as my ebb-tide; but let prayer
        have its springs, too, brimming,
        disarming him; discovering somewhere
        among his fissures deposits of mercy
        where trust may take root and grow.
        • R. S. Thomas, in "Tidal" in Mass for Hard Times (1992), p. 43.

      Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

      Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 189-90.
      • I will indulge my sorrows, and give way
        To all the pangs and fury of despair.
      • Despair of ever being saved, "except thou be born again," or of seeing God "without holiness," or of having part in Christ except thou "love him above father, mother, or thy own life." This kind of despair is one of the first steps to heaven.
      • The world goes whispering to its own,
        "This anguish pierces to the bone;"
        And tender friends go sighing round,
        "What love can ever cure this wound?"
        My days go on, my days go on.
      • The name of the Slough was Despond.
        • John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), Part I, Chapter II.
      • Darkness our guide, Despair our leader was.
      • Night was our friend, our leader was Despair.
        • John Dryden, translation of Virgil's Æneid (29-19 BC), Book II. 487.
      • Nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice Teucro.
        • Never despair while under the guidance and auspices of Teucer.
        • Horace, Carmina, I, 7, 27.
      • Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest spirit
        That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair.
      • Desperatio magnum ad honeste moriendum incitamentum.
      • O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
        Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
      • They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly.
        But, bear-like, I must fight the course.
      • Oh, break, my heart! poor bankrupt, break at once!
        To prison, eyes, ne'er look on liberty!
        Vile earth, to earth resign; end motion here;
        And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier!
      • No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.
      • * * * then black despair,
        The shadow of a starless night, was thrown
        Over the world in which I moved alone.
      • Alas for him who never sees
        The stars shine through his cypress-trees
        Who, hopeless, lays his dead away,
        Nor looks to see the breaking day
        Across the mournful marbles play!

      Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

      Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
      • Mr. Fearing had, I think, a slough of despond in his mind, a slough that he carried everywhere with him, or else he could never have been as he was.
      • Despair is the damp of hell; rejoicing is the serenity of heaven.
      • Disordered nerves are the origin of much religious despair, when the individual does not suspect it; and then the body and mind have a reciprocal influence upon each other, and it is difficult to tell which influences the other most. The physician is often blamed, when the fault lies with the minister. Depression never benefits body or soul. We are saved by hope.
      • It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is omnipotent.
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      • Despair is like forward children, who, when you take away one of their playthings, throw the rest into the fire for madness. It grows angry with itself, turns its own executioner, and revenges its misfortunes on its own head.
      • It becomes no man to nurse despair, but, in the teeth of clenched antagonisms, to follow up the worthiest till he die.
      • It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire, and many things to fear.
      • The fact that God has prohibited despair gives misfortune the right to hope all things, and leaves hope free to dare all things
      • The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation ... A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind.
      • What we call despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.
      • The specific character of despair is precisely this: it is unaware of being despair.
      • Despair is Freedom.
        • Anonymous.
      • Don't you understand? Can't you see? You're all going to die!
        • Otto Witt, trying to convince the garrison at Rourke's Drift to flee (Film Zulu).
      • Senator, I agree with you-and I would also say that despair is not a method.
        • General John Abizaid, in response to Hillary Clinton's 'Hope is not a strategy'.
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      Last modified on 26 May 2013, at 15:48