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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• 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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• 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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• I don't think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain't desperate at some point, you ain't interesting.

  Jim Carrey

  Thinking, Creating, Interesting

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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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• She wore far too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. That is always a sign of despair in a woman.

  Oscar Wilde

  Fashion, Maturity, Night

  1895 Lord Goring. An Ideal Husband, act 2.

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

  Anthony Burgess

  Money, Degrees, Needs

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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 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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• 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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