Desperation Quotes

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  Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Song, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.27, Heron Dance Press

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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.

  William S. Burroughs

  Change, Believe, Despair

  William S. Burroughs (1988). “The Western Lands”, Penguin Group USA

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• Success is the good fortune that comes from aspiration, desperation, perspiration,and inspiration.

  Evan Esar

  Inspirational, Motivational, Strength

  Evan Esar (1961). “Humorous English: a guide to comic usage, jocular speech and writing, and witty grammar”

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• In life you need either inspiration or desperation.

  Tony Robbins

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  FaceBook post by Tony Robbins from Apr 14, 2015

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• It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wise, Wisdom, Business

  'Walden' (1854) 'Economy'

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• Desperation is like stealing from the Mafia: you stand a good chance of attracting the wrong attention.

  Douglas Horton

  Mafia, Attention, Chance

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• Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.

  Amy Tan

  Kindness, Inspiration, Flukes

  Amy Tan (2004). “The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings”

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• I am one of those people who thrive on deadlines. Nothing brings on inspiration more readily than desperation.

  Harry Shearer

  Inspiration, People, Deadline

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• The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  Walden ch. 1 (1854)

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• Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Wisdom, Powerful, Intelligent

  Benjamin Disraeli, Edmund Gosse, Robert Arnot (1904). “The Works of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield: Embracing Novels, Romances, Plays, Poems, Biography, Short Stories and Great Speeches”

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

  Anthony Burgess

  Money, Degrees, Needs

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• There are no desperate situations, there are only desperate people.

  Heinz Guderian

  Desperate Situations, People, Historical

  "Die Deutschen gepanzerten Truppen bis 1945". Book by Oskar Munzel, 1965.

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• 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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• It's an interesting combination: Having a great fear of being alone, and having a desperate need for solitude and the solitary experience. That's always been a tug of war for me.

  Jodie Foster

  War, Being Alone, Interesting

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• I have always used the world of make-believe with a certain desperation.

  Ruth Benedict

  Believe, World, Used

  Ruth Benedict (2011). “An Anthropologist at Work”, p.140, Transaction Publishers

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• I like movies about longing and desperation, and dark and light things, stories about people struggling to raise children, and to have relationships and be intimate with each other.

  Laura Dern

  Children, Struggle, Dark

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• Men of my age live in a state of continual desperation.

  Trevor McDonald

  Men, Age, Aging

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• Wheels of fire, cosmic, rich, full-bodied honest victories over desperation.

  Thomas Merton

  Fire, Victory, Wheels

  Thomas Merton (1997). “Dancing In The Water Of Life Volume 5:1963-1965: Seeking Peace in the Hermitage”, HarperOne

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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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• In the range of my character at any given moment, I have acted in the only way it seemed to me I could have acted. This in no way means that I have done what was right; only what was possible for me. Sometimes I have done what I knew was wrong, and have rationalized. But rationalization is a form of desperation. It takes kindness to forgive oneself for one's life.

  Anne Truitt

  Forgiveness, Kindness, Mean

  Anne Truitt, Audrey Niffenegger (2013). “Daybook: The Journal of an Artist”, p.184, Simon and Schuster

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• Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about.

  Katharine Hepburn

  Marriage, People, Argument

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• If one is desperate for love, I suggest looking at one's friends and family and see if love is all around. If not, get a new set of friends, a new family.

  Jasmine Guy

  Love, Family, Desperate

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• Despair makes victims sometimes victors.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Despair, Sometimes, Victim

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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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• 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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