Tragedy Quotes - Page 6

• Few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive or even to hope, by a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Hope, Fear, Lying

  Stephen Jay Gould (2006). “The Mismeasure of Man (Revised & Expanded)”, p.36, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor.

  Sholom Aleichem

  Life, Wise, Dream

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• The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Atheist, Religion, Atheism

  "Credo". Essay by Arthur C. Clarke (1991), later published in Arthur C. Clarke "Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!: Collected Essays, 1934-1998" (p. 360), 1999.

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• In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Sad, Live Life, Silence

  Henry David Thoreau, Carl Hovde (1980). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.278, Princeton University Press

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• Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.

  William Butler Yeats

  Joy, Abiding, Ireland And The Irish

  "Spencer Tracy: A Biography". Book by James Curtis, www.indiewire.com. 2011.

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• The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy.

  John F. Kennedy

  Life, Courage, Bravery

  John F. Kennedy (1964). “Profiles In Courage”

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• Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Life, Hero, Writing

  The Crack-Up "Note-Books" (1945)

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• It is restful, tragedy, because one knows that there is no more lousy hope left. You know you're caught, caught at last like a rat with all the world on its back. And the only thing left to do is shout - not moan, or complain, but yell out at the top of your voice whatever it was you had to say. What you've never said before. What perhaps you don't even know till now.

  Jean Anouilh

  Voice, Complaining, World

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• Faith in God offers no insurance against tragedy.

  Philip Yancey

  Suffering, Faith In God, Inevitable

  Philip Yancey (1997). “Where Is God When It Hurts?”, p.85, Zondervan

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• The salvation of a single soul is more important than the production or preservation of all the epics and tragedies in the world.

  C. S. Lewis

  Epic, Soul, Important

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.128, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I know this year hasn't gone as we'd all like it. But please, please, everyone do not forget about that 2013 season - the worst to first, the tragedy of the Boston Marathon, everyone rallying around the city, the finish line, the duck boats, everything, celebrating at home. Might be down a little bit in the win/loss column right now, but do not let that erase any of those memories from last year that I get to wear a ring on my finger for. I'm proud to be a Red Sox for those times.

  Jonny Gomes

  Memories, Home, Loss

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• The tragedy of life is in what dies inside a man while he lives - the death of genuine feeling, the death of inspired response, the awareness that makes it possible to feel the pain or the glory of other men in yourself.

  Norman Cousins

  Life, Pain, Men

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• Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Death, Running

  'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 2, sc. 2, l. 30

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• But that night as I drove back to Montreal, I at least discovered this: that there is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do, and that the human tragedy, or the human irony, consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them.

  Hugh MacLennan

  Simple, Night, Important

  Hugh MacLennan (2009). “Watch that Ends the Night”, p.266, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

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• The constant struggle in mature life, I think, is to accept the necessity of tragedy and conflict, and not to try to escape to some falsely simple solution which does not include these more somber complexities.

  Sylvia Plath

  Struggle, Simple, Thinking

  Sylvia Plath (2011). “Letters Home”, p.301, Faber & Faber

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• Tragedy is the highest form of art.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Art, Form, Highest

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• A Shakespearean tragedy as so far considered may be called a story of exceptional calamity leading to the death of a man in high estate. But it is clearly much more than this, and we have now to regard it from another side.

  Andrew Coyle Bradley

  Men, Stories, May

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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”

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

  Kay Redfield Jamison

  Suicide, Suicidal, Names

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