#despair

Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings. ↗

— Elie Wiesel

#come #despair #given #hope #human

Despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression. ↗

— Yann Martel

#despair #expression #hell #life

This book, conceived in sorrow, composed in grief, and constructed at the brink of despair, contains my mind's best thoughts, and my soul's triumph over the powers of darkness. ↗

— Isaac Mayer Wise

#book #brink #composed #conceived #constructed

Whether you are man or woman, rich or poor, dependent or free, happy or unhappy; whether you bore in your elevation the splendour of the crown or in humble obscurity only the toil and heat of the day; whether your name will be remembered for as long as the world lasts, and so will have been remembered as long as it lasted, or you are without a name and run namelessly with the numberless multitude; whether the glory that surrounded you surpassed all human description, or the severest and most ignominious human judgment was passed on you -- eternity asks you and every one of these millions of millions, just one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not, whether so in despair that you did not know that you were in despair, or in such a way that you bore this sickness concealed deep inside you as your gnawing secret, under your heart like the fruit of a sinful love, or in such a way that, a terror to others, you raged in despair. If then, if you have lived in despair, then whatever else you won or lost, for you everything is lost, eternity does not acknowledge you, it never knew you, or, still more dreadful, it knows you as you are known, it manacles you to yourself in despair! ↗

— Søren Kierkegaard

#eternity #glory #death

On the wagon sped, and I, as well as my comrades, gave a despairing farewell glance at freedom as we came in sight of the long stone buildings. ↗

— Nellie Bly

#came #comrades #despairing #farewell #freedom

There was a castle called Doubting Castle, the owner whereof was Giant Despair. ↗

— John Bunyan

#castle #despair #doubting #giant #owner

Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair. ↗

— Edmund Burke

#never #work #you

From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength. ↗

— Cesar Chavez

#despair #dignity #fill #need #needs

Ivanov: I am a bad, pathetic and worthless individual. One needs to be pathetic, too, worn out and drained by drink, like Pasha, to be still fond of me and to respect me. My God, how I despise myself! I so deeply loathe my voice, my walk, my hands, these clothes, my thoughts. Well, isn't that funny, isn't that shocking? Less than a year ago I was healthy and strong, I was cheerful, tireless, passionate, I worked with these very hands, I could speak to move even Philistines to tears, I could cry when I saw grief, I became indignant when I encountered evil. I knew inspiration, I knew the charm and poetry of quiet nights when from dusk to dawn you sit at your desk or indulge you mind with dreams. I believed, I looked into the future as into the eyes of my own mother... And now, my God, I am exhausted, I do not believe, I spend my days and nights in idleness. ↗

— Anton Chekhov

#idleness #pathetic #dreams

Oh rage! Oh despair! Oh age, my enemy! ↗

— Pierre Corneille

#despair #enemy #oh #rage