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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• 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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• The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  Walden ch. 1 (1854)

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• If you are curious, you will learn. If you are desperate, you will discover.

  Mooji

  Desperate, Curious, Ifs

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• My interest in desperation lies only in that sometimes I find myself having become desperate. Very seldom do I start out that way. I can see of course that, in the abstract, thinking and all activity is rather desperate.

  Willem de Kooning

  Lying, Thinking, Way

  Willem De Kooning (1979). “Willem de Kooning: Pittsburgh International Series, October 26, 1979-January 6, 1980, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute”

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• Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation.

  James Thurber

  Fear, Men, Curmudgeon

  James Thurber (1956). “Further fables for our time”

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• Lottery tickets are a surtax on desperation.

  Douglas Coupland

  Tickets, Lottery Ticket, Lottery

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• If we were really tough on crime, we'd try to save our children from the desperation and deprivation that leave them primed for a life of crime.

  Carrie P. Meek

  Children, Trying, Tough

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• Niger is not an isolated island of desperation. It lies within a sea of problems across Africa - particularly the 'forgotten emergencies' in poor countries or regions with little strategic or material appeal.

  Desmond Tutu

  Country, Lying, Islands

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• You might as well ask why a middle-aged man with no criminal record might put a paper bag over his head and rob a bank. I acted out of personal desperation.

  Aldrich Ames

  Men, Might, Criminals

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• Every age yearns for a more beautiful world. The deeper the desperation and the depression about the confusing present, the more intense that yearning.

  Johan Huizinga

  Depression, Beautiful, Confusing

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