Tragedy Quotes - Page 10

• It really seems to me that in the midst of great tragedy, there is always the horrible possibility that something terribly funny will happen.

  Philip K. Dick

  Possibility, Midst, Horrible

  19 Copy quote

• How important can it be that I suffer and think? My presence in this world will disturb a few tranquil lives and will unsettle the unconscious and pleasant naiveté of others. Although I feel that my tragedy is the greatest in history - greater than the fall of empires - I am nevertheless aware of my total insignificance. I am absolutely persuaded that I am nothing in this universe; yet I feel that mine is the only real existence.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Real, Fall, Thinking

  "On the Heights of Despair". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1934.

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Irishman sustains himself during brief periods of joy by the knowledge that tragedy is just around the corner.

  William Butler Yeats

  Joy, Periods, Irishmen

  112 Copy quote

• I'm thinking of how unexpected and yet oddly preordained life can be. Events are upon you in an instant, unforseen and without warning, and often times marked with disappointment and tragedy, but equally often leading to a better understanding of the bittersweet truth of life.

  Rob Lowe

  Disappointment, Thinking, Understanding

  4 Copy quote

• The romantics would call this a love story, the cynics would call it a tragedy.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Stories, Love Story, Notebook Love

  Twitter post from Dec 17, 2012

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's just that most really good-looking people are stupid, so I exceed expectations.' 'Right, it's primarily his hotness,' I said. 'It can be sort of blinding,' he said. 'It actually did blind our friend Isaac,' I said. 'Terrible tragedy, that. But can I help my own deadly beauty?' 'You cannot.' 'It is my burden, this beautiful face.' 'Not to mention your body.' 'Seriously, don't even get me started on my hot bod. You don't want to see me naked, Dave. Seeing me naked actually took Hazel Grace's breath away,' he said, nodding toward the oxygen tank.

  John Green

  Beautiful, Stupid, Oxygen

  7 Copy quote

• Tragedy had sent me headlong into reality. All the things I had seen before now looked different, even nature.

  Virginia C. Andrews

  Reality, Different

  Virginia C. Andrews (1996). “Melody”, G K Hall & Co

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Is there anyone’s life story you don’t want to know?” “Not really.” His expression was unexpectedly serious. “Because people make a story of their lives. Gains, losses, tragedy and triumph—you can tell a lot about someone simply by what they put into each category. You can learn a lot about what you put into each category by your reaction to them. They teach you about yourself without ever intending to do it—and they teach you a lot about life.

  Michelle Sagara

  Loss, Expression, People

  9 Copy quote

• It’s easier to be a character in a story than the star of your own tragedy.

  Jonathan Maberry

  Stars, Character, Stories

  Jonathan Maberry (2012). “Dust & Decay”, p.337, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Get thee behind me, tragedy.

  Anne Rice

  Thee, Behinds

  4 Copy quote

• It's as if they have thinner boundaries separating them from other people's emotions and from the tragedies and cruelties of the world.

  Susan Cain

  People, World, Emotion

  Susan Cain (2012). “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking”, p.137, Broadway Books

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is no tragedy, only the unavoidable. Everything has its reason for being: you only need to distinguish what is temporary from what is lasting.

  Paulo Coelho

  Needs, Reason, Lasting

  FaceBook post by Paulo Coelho from May 26, 2014

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• When the news you don't want to hear is looming before you like Everest, two things can happen. Tragedy can run you through like a sword, or it can become your backbone. Either you fall apart and sob, or you say, 'Right. What's next?

  Jodi Picoult

  Running, Fall, Two

  Jodi Picoult (2012). “Lone Wolf: A Novel”, p.75, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I made strength from everything that had happened to me, so that in the end even the final tragedy could not defeat me. And that is what Ultima tried to teach me, that the tragic consequences of life can be overcome by the magical strength that resides in the human heart. --Antonio

  Rudolfo Anaya

  Heart, Overcoming, Finals

  16 Copy quote

• Blood in the water I sing, and one who shed it: deadliest hunger I sing, and one who fed it- weaving the ancient-most tale of the Sea's sending: singing the tragedy, singing the joy unending This is our shame- this is the whole Ocean's glory: this is the Song of the Twelve. Hark to the story! Hearken, and bring it to pass: swift lest the sorrow long ago laid to it's rest devour us tomarrow!

  Diane Duane

  Song, Ocean, Long Ago

  Diane Duane (2003). “Deep Wizardry”, p.185, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I know that you're selfish, selfish beyond words, and I know that you haven't the nerve of a rabbit, I know you're a liar and a humbug, I know that you're utterly contemptible. And the tragic part is'--her face was on a sudden distraught with pain--'the tragic part is that notwithstanding I love you with all my heart.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Pain, Selfish, Women

  4 Copy quote

• People can't seem to get it through their heads that there is never any healing or closure. Ever. There is only a short pause before the next "horrifying" event. People forget there is such a thing as memory, and that when a wound "heals" it leaves a permanent scar that never goes away, but merely fades a little. What really ought to be said after one of these so-called tragedies is, "Let the scarring begin.

  George Carlin

  Memories, Healing, People

  George Carlin (2004). “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?”, Hyperion

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have always envied people who believe strongly in religion, people who could face a tragedy by praying and know that it would be all right. As unscientific as it seems, well, it would be nice to lay the responsibilities and pain on someone else's larger shoulders.

  Jodi Picoult

  Pain, Nice, Believe

  7 Copy quote

• I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.

  Elie Wiesel

  Encouragement, Two, Historical

  4 Copy quote

• There's something vile (and all the more vile because ridiculous) in the tendency of feeble men to make universal tragedies out of the sad comedies of their private woes.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Men, Woe, Ridiculous

  Fernando Pessoa (2005). “The Education of the Stoic: The Only Manuscript of the Baron of Teive”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Suicide is not a blot on anyone’s name; it is a tragedy

  Kay Redfield Jamison

  Suicide, Suicidal, Names

  9 Copy quote

• None of us has ever seen a motive. Therefore, we don't know we can't do anything more than suspect what inspires the action of another. For this good and valid reason, we're told not to judge. Tragedy is that our attention centers on what people are not, rather than on what they are and who they might become.

  Brennan Manning

  Judging, People, Inspire

  27 Copy quote

• We can only begin to live when we conceive life as Tragedy.

  William Butler Yeats

  5 Copy quote

• The tragedy of being both rational and animal seems to consist in having to choose between duty and desire rather than in making any particular choice

  Mortimer Adler

  Animal, Choices, Desire

  4 Copy quote

• the tragedy of an attachment is that if its object is not attained it causes unhappiness. But if it is attained, it does not cause happiness – it merely causes a flash of pleasure followed by weariness, and it is always accompanied, of course, by the anxiety that you may lose the object of your attachment.

  Anthony de Mello

  Attachment, Anxiety, Doe

  Anthony De Mello (2011). “The Way to Love: Meditations for Life”, p.21, Image

  29 Copy quote

  Show source