#tragedy

It is at the family fireside, often under the shelter of the law itself, that the real tragedies of life are acted; in these days traitors wear gloves, scoundrels cloak themselves in public esteem, and their victims die broken-hearted, but smiling to the last. What I have just related to you is almost an every-day occurrence; and yet you profess astonishment. ↗

— Émile Gaboriau

#treachery #family

As a lord was held for the strength of his body and stoutness of heart. Much lore he learned, and loved wisdom but fortune followed him in few desires; oft wrong and awry what he wrought turned; what he loved he lost, what he longed for he won not; and full friendship he found not easily, nor was lightly loved for his looks were sad. He was gloom-hearted, and glad seldom for the sundering sorrow that filled his youth... (On Turin Turambar - The Children of Hurin) ↗

— J.R.R. Tolkien

#tolkien #tragedy #friendship

Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more. ↗

— Jeannette Walls

#life #tragedy #life

Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel. ↗

— Jean Racine

#emotions #feeling #life #thinking #tragedy

All those who try to unveil the mysteries always have tragic lives. At the end they are always punished. ↗

— Anaïs Nin

#tragedy #life

[Comedies], in the ancient world, were regarded as of a higher rank than tragedy, of a deeper truth, of a more difficult realization, of a sounder structure, and of a revelation more complete. The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read, not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man.... Tragedy is the shattering of the forms and of our attachments to the forms; comedy, the wild and careless, inexhaustible joy of life invincible. ↗

— Joseph Campbell

#tragedy #life

If you are involved with the intensity of crescendo situations, with the intensity of tragedy, you might begin to see the humor of these situations as well. As in music, when we hear the crescendo building, suddenly if the music stops, we begin to hear the silence as part of the music. ↗

— Chögyam Trungpa

#buddhism #crescendo #enlightenment #humanity #humor

The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, which still we thank as love. ↗

— William Shakespeare

#macbeth #play #tragedy #william-shakespeare #love

The poets say some moths will do anything out of love for a flame [...] The moth takes off again, and we both step back, because he's circling at eye level now and seems to have lost rudder control, smacking into the wall on each round. He circles lower and lower, spinning around the candle in tighter revolutions, like a soap sud over an open drain. A few times he seems to touch the flame, but dances off unhurt. Then he ignites like a ball of hair, curling into an oily puff of fumes with a hiss. The candle flame flickers and dims for a moment, then burns as bright as before. Moth Smoke Lingers. ↗

— Mohsin Hamid

#insects #love #moth #smoke #star-crossed

We are all Romeos looking for our Juliet, but never finding her. ↗

— Rae Hachton

#love #lovers-love-story #lovers-quarrel #romance #romeo-and-juliet