Tragic Quotes - Page 17

• Joaquin Jackson's frank and colorful account of his long career as a modern-day Texas Ranger thrills like an action novel, yet the stories are true, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, but always gripping. I could hardly put the book down. . . .The writing is superb.

  Elmer Kelton

  Book, Writing, Texas

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• So much of America's tragic and costly failure to care for all its children stems from our tendency to distinguish between our own children and other people's children--as if justice were divisible.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Children, America, People

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• There were many moments in the Vine like that one--where you might think today was yesterday, and yesterday was tomorrow, and so on. Because we all believed we were tragic, and we drank. We had that helpless, destined feeling. We would die with handcuffs on. We would be put a stop to, and it wouldn't be our fault. So we imagined. And yet we were always being found innocent for ridiculous reasons.

  Denis Johnson

  Thinking, Yesterday, Feelings

  Denis Johnson (2009). “Jesus' Son: Stories”, p.32, Macmillan

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• Am I a pessimist? Not at all. I am convinced that the history of the human race, no matter how tragic, will ultimately lead to the Kingdom of God. I am convinced that all the works of humankind will be reintegrated in the work of God, and that each of us, no matter how sinful, will ultimately be saved.

  Jacques Ellul

  Race, Kingdoms, Matter

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• Shakespeare's plays often turn on the idea of fate, as much drama does. What makes them so tragic is the gap between what his characters might like to accomplish and what fate provides them.

  Nate Silver

  Drama, Character, Fate

  Nate Silver (2012). “The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don't”, p.14, Penguin

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• The diabolical work that has taken place since the legalization of abortion is that it has destroyed, in those tragic women who have allowed their child to be murdered, their sense for the sacredness of maternity. Abortion not only murders the innocent; it spiritually murders women... the wound created in their souls is so great that only God's grace can heal it. The very soul of a woman is meant to be maternal.

  Alice von Hildebrand

  Children, Taken, Abortion

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• Between "just desserts" and "tragic irony" we are given quite a lot of scope for our particular talent. Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go when things have got about as bad as they reasonably get.

  Tom Stoppard

  Gone, Irony, Talent

  "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". Book by Tom Stoppard, www.goodreads.com. 1966.

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• Liberty and equality, spontaneity and security, happiness and knowledge, mercy and justice - all these are ultimate human values, sought for themselves alone; yet when they are incompatible, they cannot all be attained, choices must be made, sometimes tragic losses accepted in the pursuit of some preferred ultimate end.

  Isaiah Berlin

  Loss, Justice, Choices

  Isaiah Berlin (2013). “The Power of Ideas”, p.27, Princeton University Press

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• To be homeward bound, no matter what tragic memories you have harbored, is unlike any voyage a man can ever make.

  Leon Uris

  Memories, Men, Matter

  Leon Uris (1995). “Redemption”, G K Hall & Company

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• I am always a beginner. I only try to include different parts of life; the pastoral, the tragic, et cetera.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Past, Trying, Different

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• Last, but not least -- in fact, this is most important -- you need a happy ending. However, if you can create tragic situations and jerk a few tears before the happy ending, it will work much better.

  Satyajit Ray

  Important, Tears, Facts

  Satyajit Ray (2004). “Complete Adventures of Feluda”, p.575, Penguin Books India

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• Spiritual awakening is the most essential thing in man's life, and it is the sole purpose of being. Is not civilization, in all its tragic forms, a supreme motive for spiritual awakening?

  Khalil Gibran

  Life, Spiritual, Men

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• If only gravity were working, the path would be symmetrical, it is the wind resistance that produces the tragic curve.

  Norman Mailer

  Curves, Wind, Would Be

  Norman Mailer (2013). “The Naked and the Dead: 50th Anniversary Edition, With a New Introduction by the Author”, p.570, Henry Holt and Company

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• THE SUFFERING OF GENIUS AND ITS VALUE. The artistic genius desires to give pleasure, but if his mind is on a very high plane he does not easily find anyone to share his pleasure; he offers entertainment but nobody accepts it. That gives him, in certain circumstances, a comically touching pathos; for he has no right to force pleasure on men. He pipes, but none will dance: can that be tragic?

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Men, Giving, Touching

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2012). “Human, All-Too-Human: Parts One and Two”, p.95, Courier Corporation

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• I had a really good time in New Orleans, although I had some very tragic times in Baton Rouge. Some guys beat me up and threw my horn away. 'Cause I had a beard, then, and long hair like the Beatles.

  Ornette Coleman

  New Orleans, Hair, Long

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• There is something tragic about the enormous number of young men there are in England at the present moment who start life with perfect profiles, and end by adopting some useful profession.

  Oscar Wilde

  Work, Men, Numbers

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.437, University of Chicago Press

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• When love ceases to be tragic it is something else and the individual again throws himself in search of tragedy.

  Albert Camus

  Tragedy, Happiness And Love, Individual

  Albert Camus (2008). “Notebooks, 1951-1959”, Ivan R Dee

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• History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Giving Up, Long

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.89, Beacon Press

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• We don't live in Disneyland. We live in blood and in time, not in Fantasyland. We live in a tragic world.

  Costa-Gavras

  Time, Blood, World

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• The unicorn was white, with hoofs of silver and graceful horn of pearl... The glorious thing about him was his eye. There was a faint bluish furrow down each side of his nose, and this led to the eye sockets, and surrounded them in a pensive shade. The eyes, circled by this sad and beautiful darkness, were so sorrowful, lonely, gentle and nobly tragic, that they killed all other emotions except love.

  T. H. White

  Beautiful, Lonely, Eye

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• It is tragic for our God, Who gave us His Son to die on the cross, to beg us to love Him.

  Jack Hyles

  Son, Crosses, Dies

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• I never cared about whatever tragic event happened in China. It's faraway decoration, even if in blood and plague.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Blood, Events, China

  "The Book of Disquiet". Book by Fernando Pessoa, p. 164, 1982.

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• I've seen enough successful writers who no longer seem to care when they are recognized with an award, and I think that's just tragic.

  Louise Penny

  Successful, Thinking, Awards

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• I think that there is a tragic misfit at the core of me, and I've just done a lot of work on myself. I love a good self-help book; I've read a ton of them. I love self-help seminars and therapy and all that.

  Jenna Fischer

  Book, Thinking, Self

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. July 22, 2011.

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• I don't know anyone who was never a geek, really, when they look at their own lives. I think that from the outside looking in, you think that you weren't necessarily a tragic geek, but yes, you did lean in that direction.

  Jennifer Garner

  Thinking, Looks, Geek

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