Soren Kierkegaard
Philosopher, Theologian
"People settle for a level of despair they can tolerate and call it happiness."
Despair quotes
Despair
934 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Soren Kierkegaard
Philosopher, Theologian
"The most common form of despair is not being who you are."
Leonard Cohen
Singer-Songwriter
"I greet you from the other side of sorrow and despair, with a love so vast and shattered it will reach you everywhere."
Martin Heidegger
Philosopher
"Why are there beings at all instead of nothing? That is the question. Presumably it is not arbitrary question, "Why are there beings at all instead of nothing"- this is obviously the first of all questions. Of course it is not the first question in the chronological sense [...] And yet, we are each touched once, maybe even every now and then, by the concealed power of this question, without properly grasping what is happening to us. In great despair, for example, when all weight tends to dwindle away from things and the sense of things grows dark, the question looms."
Bell Hooks
Author, Feminist, Social Activist
"Hope is essential to any political struggle for radical change when the overall social climate promotes disillusionment and despair."
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Despair quotes (page 1 of 47)
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"When I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of values[...]."
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"Two criminals were crucified with Christ. One was saved; do not despair. One was not; do not presume."
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"Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape."
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"Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair."
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"Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair."
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"I despair of the Republic! Such dreariness, such whining sallow women, such utter absence of the amenities, such crass food, crass manners, crass landscape!! What a horror it is for a whole nation to be developing without the sense of beauty, and eating bananas for breakfast."
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"God does not send us despair in order to kill us; he sends it in order to awaken us to new life."
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"No, my heart will not yet despair. Gandalf fell and has returned and is with us. We may stand, if only on one leg, or at least be left still upon our knees."
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"We never gave up. We didn't get lost in a sea of despair. We kept the faith. We kept pushing and pulling. We kept marching. And we made some progress."
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"And when the hourglass has run out, the hourglass of temporality, when the noise of secular life has grown silent and its restless or ineffectual activism has come to an end, when everything around you is still, as it is in eternity, then eternity asks you and every individual in these millions and millions about only one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not."
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"It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not."
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"... Let us risk the wildest places, Lest we go down in comfort, and despair."
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"In life when we feel we have reached a limit, that is when the true battle begins. Just when you despair and think it is impossible to go any further, will you become apathetic, or will you say it's not over and stand up with an unyielding spirit? The battle is decided by this single determination."
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?"
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"Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair."
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"However desperate the situation and circumstances, don't despair. When there is everything to fear, be unafraid. When surrounded by dangers, fear none of them. When without resources, depend on resourcefulness. When surprised, take the enemy by surprise."
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"When there's no sign of hope in the desert, so much hope still lives inside despair. Heart, don't kill that hope."
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"When suddenly you seem to lose all you thought you had gained, do not despair. You must expect setbacks and regressions. Don't say to yourself "All is lost. I have to start all over again." This is not true. What you have gained you have gained....When you return to the the road, you return to the place where you left it, not to where you started."
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"The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair."
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"Do not despair of your life. You have force enough to overcome your obstacles."
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