Alas Quotes

• Now is the winter of our discontent.

  William Shakespeare

  Summer, Winter, Merchant Of Venice

  'Richard III' (1591) act 1, sc. 1, l. 1

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• Alas, our frailty is the cause , not we! For, such as we are made of, such we be.

  William Shakespeare

  Blame, Made, Frailty

  "The Plays (poems) of Shakespeare". Ed. by H. Staunton, the illustr. by J. Gilbert engr. by the brothers Dalziel,

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• Alas, our rulers are not gods, but puny, fallible men, like the kings who constantly forget their parts, and we common men should be their prompters.

  Lin Yutang

  Kings, Men, Common

  Lin Yutang, (2013). “Between Tears and Laughter”, p.11, Read Books Ltd

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• Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?

  William Shakespeare

  Song, Imagination, Gorges

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 5, sc. 1, l. [201]

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• Time goes, you say? Ah, no! alas, time stays, we go.

  Henry Austin Dobson

  Life, Time, Passing By

  Proverbs in Porcelain (1877) "Paradox of Time"

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• Alas! how easily things go wrong!

  George MacDonald

  George MacDonald (1874). “Phantastes: A Faerie Romance”, p.86

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• Alas, all too often, the dream turns into a mud puddle. I am left looking at a disaster. What to do! Keep working. I ask the Almighty for help. That frees me.

  Jules Olitski

  Dream, Failure, Mud

  6 Copy quote

• Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.

  William Shakespeare

  Laughing, Favour, Important Hamlet

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 5, sc. 1, l. [201]

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• Alas! sorrow from happiness is oft evolved.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Sorrow

  "The Natural Daughter". Play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, II. 3. 17, 1803.

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• But alas, if I have not maintained my victory, it is God's fault for not making man and the devil of equal strength.

  Victor Hugo

  Men, Victory, Devil

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• Oh literature, oh the glorious Art, how it preys upon the marrow in our bones. It scoops the stuffing out of us, and chucks us aside. Alas!

  D. H. Lawrence

  Art, Literature, Bones

  D. H. Lawrence, James T. Boulton (2002). “The Letters of D. H. Lawrence”, p.417, Cambridge University Press

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• But alas, the most terrifying aspect of the whole fascist episode is the dark fact that most of its poisons are generated not by evil men or evil peoples, but by quite ordinary men in search of an answer to the baffling problems that beset every society.

  John T. Flynn

  Dark, Men, Evil

  "As We Go Marching".

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• Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! *It’s sad. Love looks like a nice thing, but it’s actually very rough when you experience it.*

  William Shakespeare

  Sad Love, Nice, Views

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• The greatest dramas in the world are all about sex, violence and death.

  Ray Winstone

  Sex, Drama, World

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Alas, I am dying beyond my means.

  Oscar Wilde

  Death, Wine, Mean

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• I will frankly confess that after passing a few weeks in the valley of the Marquesas, I formed a higher estimate of human nature than I had ever before entertained. But, alas, since then I have been one of the crew of a man-of- war, and the pent-up wickedness of five hundred men has nearly overturned all my previous theories.

  Herman Melville

  War, Men, Valleys

  7 Copy quote

• Our sense of worth, of well-being, even our sanity depends upon our remembering. But, alas, our sense of worth, our well-being, our sanity also depend upon our forgetting.

  Joyce Appleby

  Remember, Forget, Sanity

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• Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!

  Henry David Thoreau

  Beauty, Memories, Doe

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.170, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Alas! we must suffer ourselves before we can feel for others.

  Emile Gaboriau

  Empathy, Suffering, Feels

  Émile Gaboriau (2015). “File”, p.41, Booklassic

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• Alas, why does my mind have to walk through the dust of the past every day?

  Sri Chinmoy

  Past, Dust, Mind

  "Twenty Seven Thousand Aspiration Plants". Poetry series by Sri Chinmoy (#14702, Part 15), 1983.

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• I shall be glad to see thee back, daughter, for I miss thee dreadfully. I wish I did not! I was taking a nap in my chair today, and I thought I heard thee rustling thy papers, and I looked over at thy table expecting to see thee, and alas! thee was not there, and it was dreadful.

  Hannah Whitall Smith

  Daughter, Naps, Missing

  Hannah Whitall Smith (1950). “Philadelphia Quaker: the letters of Hannah Whitall Smith”

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• We usually think of ourselves as sitting the driver's seat, with ultimate control over the decisions we made and the direction our life takes; but, alas, this perception has more to do with our desires-with how we want to view ourselves, than with reality.

  Dan Ariely

  Reality, Thinking, Views

  "Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions". Book by Dan Ariely, February 19, 2008.

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• Academia is alas full of special interests and specialists who presumed it was possible to "leapfrog" over this or that entire line of development. These minds hoped to distance themselves from the pernicious vices of a whole way of thinking, but of course at the same time excluded all of its virtues too. Modern abstractivism in its simplex form (which does not preclude a high degree of articulate facility within the ambit of what is preconceived and accepted).

  Kenny Smith

  Distance, Philosophy, Thinking

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• A sound banker, alas, is not one who foresees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional way along with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Bankers, Sound, Investing

  "The Consequences to the Banks of the Collapse of Money Values" (1931)

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• Nothing is more common than for men to make partial and absurd distinctions between vices of equal enormity, and to observe some of the divine commands with great scrupulousness, while they violate others, equally important, without any concern, or the least apparent conciousness of guilt. Alas, it is only wisdom which perceives this tragedy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Important, Tragedy

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