Doleful Quotes

• Why is it that man desires to be made sad, beholding doleful and tragical things, which yet himself would by no means suffer?

  Saint Augustine

  Mean, Men, Suffering

  Saint Augustine (1997). “The Confessions of Saint Augustine: The Autobiography of a Prodigal Who Became a Saint”, p.36, Simon and Schuster

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• If he does go, the change will be doleful. Suppose he should be absent spring, summer, and autumn: how joyless sunshine and fine days will seem!

  Charlotte Bronte

  Summer, Spring, Sunshine

  Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.124, Penguin

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• Yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness visible.

  John Milton

  Light, Flames, Darkness

  'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 1, l. 61

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• They are quite hopeless - drooling, driveling, doleful, depressing, dropsical drips.

  Thomas Beecham

  Depressing, Hopeless, Drooling

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• When griping grief the heart doth wound, and doleful dumps the mind opresses, then music, with her silver sound, with speedy help doth lend redress.

  William Shakespeare

  Grief, Memorable, Heart

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• Where peace
  And rest can never dwell, hope never comes,
  That comes to all.

  John Milton

  Hope, Peace, Paradise Lost Book 1

  'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 1, l. 61

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• A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, As one great furnace, flamed; yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness visible Serv'd only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all; but torture without end.

  John Milton

  Flames, Light, Sight

  'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 1, l. 61

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• I love a ballad but even too well if it be doleful matter merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed and sung lamentably.

  William Shakespeare

  Matter, Ballads, Wells

  William Shakespeare, Joseph Dennie, Isaac Reed, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (1805). “Taming of the shrew. Winter's tale. Comedy of errors”, p.267

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• You hear all this whining going on, "Where are our great writers?" The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?

  Gore Vidal

  Investing, Might, Whining

  "Gore Vidal: What I've Learned". Interview with Mike Sager, www.esquire.com. August 1, 2012.

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• The days are cold, the nights are long, The North wind sings a doleful song; Then hush again upon my breast; All merry things are now at rest, Save thee, my pretty love!

  Dorothy Wordsworth

  Good Night, Song, Wind

  William Wordsworth, Dorothy Wordsworth (1815). “Poems”, p.160

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• Sorrow, like a heavy ringing bell, once set on ringing, with its own weight goes; then little strength rings out the doleful knell.

  William Shakespeare

  Grief, Sorrow, Weight

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• Straight is the way to Acheron,
  Whether the spirit's race is run
  From Athens or from Meroe:
  Weep not, far from home to die;
  The wind doth blow in every sky
  That wafts us to that doleful sea.

  John Addington Symonds

  Running, Home, Blow

  John Addington Symonds (1871). “Miscellanies”, p.412

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• Every man is occasionally visited by the suspicion that the planet on which he is riding is not really going anywhere; that the Force which controls its measured eccentricities hasn't got anything special in mind. If he broods on this somber theme long enough he gets the doleful idea that the laughing children on a merry-go-round or the thin, fine hands of a lady's watch are revolving more purposely than he is.

  James Thurber

  Children, Men, Ideas

  James Thurber (1996). “Writings and Drawings”, Library of America

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