Desperation Quotes - Page 3

• The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wisdom, Country, Men

  'Walden' (1854) 'Economy'

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• Success comes from aspiration, desperation, perspiration, and inspiration!

  Denise Austin

  Success, Inspiration, Aspiration

  FaceBook post by Denise Austin from Aug 26, 2011

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• Let me do my work each day, and if the darkened hours of despair overcome me, may I not forget the strength that comforted me in the desolation of other times.

  Max Ehrmann

  Despair, Overcoming, Each Day

  Max Ehrmann (2017). “The Desiderata of Happiness”, p.11, Souvenir Press Ltd

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• such incidents brought me to the verge of despair, but little more and I would have put an end to my life - only art it was that withheld me, - ah, it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I had felt called upon to produce.

  Ludwig van Beethoven

  Art, Despair, Littles

  Ludwig van Beethoven (1957). “Heiligenstädter Testament”

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• Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Marriage, Wedding, Bird

  Attributed to "Essais" by Michel de Montaigne, Book III, Ch. 5, 1595.

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• Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique.

  Leonard Cohen

  Unique, Care, Creator

  Leonard Cohen (2011). “Beautiful Losers”, p.77, Vintage

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• The intellect of most men is barren. They neither fertilize or are fertilized. It is the marriage of the soul with nature that makes the intellect fruitful, that gives birth to imagination...without nature-awakened imagination most persons do not really live in the world, they merely pass through it as they live dull lives of quiet desperation.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Gratitude, Men, Dull Life

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• Desperation is like a spilled drink; even if it's delicious, no one will get near it. Cultivate an aura of glamorous unapproachability.

  Daniel Handler

  Auras, Drink, Glamorous

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• Desperation is the perfume of the young actor. It's so satisfying to have gotten rid of it. If you keep smelling it, it can drive you crazy. In this business a lot of people go nuts, go eccentric, even end up dead from it. Not my plan.

  Uma Thurman

  Business, Crazy, Nuts

  Interview with Laura Yorke, Reader's Digest, July 2006.

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• We all need money, but there are degrees of desperation.

  Anthony Burgess

  Money, Degrees, Needs

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• What is most original in a man's nature is often that which is most desperate. Thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. If Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn't have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.

  Leonard Cohen

  Pain, Unique, Men

  Leonard Cohen (2011). “Beautiful Losers”, p.77, Vintage

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• The tragedy of it is that nobody sees the look of desperation on my face. Thousands and thousands of us, and we're passing one another without a look of recognition.

  Henry Miller

  Fear, Reality, Tragedy

  Henry Miller (1961). “The Cosmological Eye”, p.335, New Directions Publishing

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• The abjection of our political situation is the only true challenge today. Only facing up to this situation in all its desperation can help us get out of it.

  Jean Baudrillard

  Political, Challenges, Politics

  Jean Baudrillard (1990). “Cool Memories”, p.191, Verso

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• Restless, and in desperate need of adventure, I quit my job at an insurance company to travel west with a couple of guys I smoked pot with, scandalizing my family.

  Mink Stole

  Travel, Jobs, Couple

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• I was desperate really for people not to accuse me of coldness. It was taboo.

  Thomas Dolby

  People, Desperate, Taboo

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• People need motivation to do anything. I don't think human beings learn anything without desperation.

  Jim Carrey

  Motivational, Thinking, People

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• Somehow it is the male's duty to put the best years of his life into work he doesn't like in order that he may "retire" and enjoy himself as soon as he is too old to do so. This is more than just the system - it is the credo. It is the same thing that prompted Thoreau to say, in 1839: 'The majority of men lead lives of quiet desperation.'

  Sterling Hayden

  Men, Order, Years

  Sterling Hayden (2015). “Wanderer”, p.44, Pickle Partners Publishing

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• We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation.

  Jim Rohn

  Inspiration, Two, Choices

  FaceBook post by Jim Rohn from Mar 21, 2017

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• Rock 'n Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.

  Frank Sinatra

  Music, Rock And Roll, Rocks

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• I do believe that most men live lives of quiet desperation. For despair, optimism is the only practical solution. Hope is practical. Because eliminate that and it's pretty scary. Hope at least gives you the option of living.

  Harry Nilsson

  Inspirational, Hope, Believe

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• If the people who hurt us have anger or desperation within them then they suffer. When you see that someone suffers, you might be motivated by a desire to help him not to suffer anymore.

  Nhat Hanh

  Hurt, People, Suffering

  "Building a Community of Love: bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh". Interview with bell hooks, plumvillage.org. January 1, 2000.

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• The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sad, Men, Despair

  Walden ch. 1 (1854)

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• The people at the record company had asked me if I could write a song about my life, my relationship with God, and where I'm from. Well, I can't write a song on purpose, my songs come in a moment of inspiration or desperation.

  Billy Ray Cyrus

  Song, Inspiration, Writing

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• Today, for a Jew who writes in the German language, it is totally impossible to make a living. In no group do I see as much misery, disappointment, desperation and hopelessness as in Jewish writers who write in German.

  Stefan Zweig

  Disappointment, Writing, German Language

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• So, how to stay inside the world of entertainment without actually getting another job? I felt the only logical answer was to become a novelist. So I wrote the first book - driven by some very real feelings of desperation - and it worked.

  Lee Child

  Jobs, Real, Book

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