Wretched Quotes - Page 14

• The more imagination the reader has ... the more he will do for himself. He will, at a mere hint from the author, flood wretched material with suggestion and never guess that he is himself chiefly making what he enjoys.

  C. S. Lewis

  Imagination, Suggestions, Hints

  C. S. Lewis (2002). “On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature”, p.38, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The wretched have no friends.

  John Dryden

  Friends, No Friends

  John Bell, Joseph Addison, Michael Arne, John Banks, John Brown (1792). “British Theatre: Isabella, or, The fatal marriage”

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• I know myself a Man-- Which is a proud and yet a wretched thing.

  Sir John Davies

  Men, Proud, Knows

  'Nosce Teipsum' st. 45

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• He who seeks truth must be content with a lonely, little-trodden path. If he cannot worship her till she has been canonized by the shouts of the multitude, he must take his place with the members of that wretched crowd who shouted for two long hours, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" till truth, reason, and calmness were all drowned in noise.

  Frederick William Robertson

  Lonely, Truth, Two

  Frederick William Robertson (1867). “Sermons Preached at Trinity Chapel, Brighton”, p.135

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• No-one was ever made wretched in a brothel.

  Cyril Connolly

  Made, Brothels

  "The Unquiet Grave". Book by Cyril Connolly, 1944.

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• I am convinced the most unfortunate people are those who would make an art of love. It sours other effort. Of all artists, they are certainly the most wretched.

  Norman Mailer

  Love, Art, People

  Norman Mailer (1992). “Advertisements for Myself”, p.181, Harvard University Press

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• Ere man's corruptions made him wretched, he Was born most noble that was born most free; Each of himself was lord; and unconfin'd Obey'd the dictates of his godlike mind.

  Thomas Otway

  Men, Mind, Noble

  1676 Don Carlos, act 2.

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• When the soul is just liberated from the wretched giant's bed of dogmas on which it has been racked and stretched ever since it began to think, there is a feeling of exultation and strong hope.

  George Eliot

  Strong, Thinking, Soul

  George Eliot (2016). “George Eliot's Life, Complete: Top Novelist Focus”, p.48, 谷月社

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• I believe that man to be wretched whom none can please.

  Martial

  Believe, Men, Unhappiness

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• The most wretched have yet hope.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Hope

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• Alike to the slave and his oppressor cometh night with sweet refreshment, and half of the life of the most wretched is gladdened by the soothings of sleep.

  Martin Farquhar Tupper

  Sweet, Sleep, Night

  Martin Farquhar Tupper (1839). “Proverbial philosophy: a book of thoughts and arguments”, p.45

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• It is easy in adversity to despise death; he has real fortitude who dares to live and be wretched.

  Martial

  Real, Adversity, Fortitude

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• In adversity it is easy to despise life; he is truly brave who can endure a wretched life.
  [Lat., Rebus in angustis facile est contemnere vitam;
  Fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest.]

  Martial

  Adversity, Bravery, Easy

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• To believe is to be happy; to doubt is to be wretched. To believe is to be strong. Doubt cramps energy. Belief is power. Only so far as a man believes strongly, mightily, can he act cheerfully, or do any thing that is worth the doing.

  Frederick William Robertson

  Strong, Believe, Men

  Frederick William Robertson (1873). “Sermons Preached at Brighton”, p.234

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• Sneering springs out of the wish to deny; and wretched must that state of mind be that wishes to take refuge in doubt.

  Letitia Elizabeth Landon

  Spring, Doubt, Mind

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• In prosperous fortunes be modest and wise, The greatest may fall, and the lowest may rise: But insolent People that fall in disgrace, Are wretched and nobody pities their Case.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Wise, Fall, People

  Benjamin Franklin (2005). “A Benjamin Franklin reader: the essential writings of a colonial sage ; Autobiography, Wit & wisdom”

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• A wretched woman is more unfortunate than a wretched man.

  Victor Hugo

  Women, Men, Unfortunate

  Victor Hugo, Frank Lee Benedict (1874). “Ninety-three”, p.253, Dawson Bros.

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• The most wretched fortune is safe; for there is no fear of anything worse.
  [Lat., Fortuna miserrima tuta est:
  Nam timor eventus deterioris abest.]

  Ovid

  Safe, No Fear, Fortune

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• It is prudence that first forsakes the wretched.

  Ovid

  Firsts, Prudence, Forsake

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• What a wretched thing is all fame! A renown of the highest sort endures, say, for two thousand years. And then? Why, then, a fathomless eternity swallows it. Work for eternity; not the meagre rhetorical eternity of the periodical critics, but for the real eternity wherein dwelleth the Divine.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Real, Years, Two

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• It is a wretched thing to rest upon the fame of others, lest, the supporting pillar being removed, the superstructure should collapse in ruin.

  Juvenal

  Ruins, Pillars, Fame

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• Near yonder copse, where once the garden smil'd,
  And still where many a garden flower grows wild,
  There, where a few torn shrubs the place disclose,
  The village preacher's modest mansion rose.
  A man he was to all the country dear,
  And passing rich with forty pounds a year;
  Remote from town's he ran his godly race,
  Nor e'er had chang'd nor wish'd to change his place;
  Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power,
  By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour;
  Far other aims his heart had learn'd to prize.
  More bent to raise the wretched than to rise.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Country, Fashion, Flower

  Oliver Goldsmith (1856). “The Miscellaneous Works: Poems. Miscellaneous pieces. Dramas. Criticism relating to poetry and the belles-lettres”, p.69

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• O friendship! thou fond soother of the human breast, to thee we fly in every calamity; to thee the wretched seek for succor; on thee the care-tired son of misery fondly relies; from thy kind assistance the unfortunate always hopes relief, and may be sure of--disappointment.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Friendship, Disappointment, Tired

  Oliver Goldsmith (1856). “The Miscellaneous Works: Letters from a citizen of the world, to his friend in the East. A familiar introduction to the study of natural history”, p.116

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• [Rhyme is] but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame Meter; ... Not without cause therefore some both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note have rejected rhyme, ... as have also long since our best English tragedies, as... trivial and of no true musical delight; which [truly] consists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned ancients both in poetry and all good oratory.

  John Milton

  Italian, Numbers, Long

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• Civilization, or that which is so called, has operated two ways to make one part of society more affluent and the other part more wretched than would have been the lot of either in a natural state.

  Thomas Paine

  Civilization, Two, Way

  Thomas Paine (1797). “Agrarian Justice, opposed to Agrarian Law, and Agrarian Monopoly. Being a plan for ameliorating the condition of man, by creating in every nation a National Fund”, p.3

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