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. . . DESPAIR see: "UNHAPPINESS" for related links see: "DEATH" for related links There are some vile and contemptible men who, allowing themselves to be conquered by misfortune, seek a refuge in death. --Agathon (c. 448400 BC) Athenian tragic poet. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_, p. 123 [10th ed. 1884]. I give the fight up: let there be an end, A privacy, an obscure nook for me. I want to be forgotten even by God. --Robert Browning (18121889) English poet. "Paracelsus" [1835] Never despair. But if you do, work on in despair. --Edmund Burke (17291797) Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters. Attributed in _The Christian Pioneer_, vol. XXXII [1878]. - But still her lips refused to send 'Farewell!' For in that word, that fatal word howe'er We promise, hope, believe there breathes despair. --Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (17881824) English Romantic poet and satirist. _The Corsair, A Tale_, canto I, st. 15 [1814] The Cardinal is at his wit's end, it is true that he had not far to go. --Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (17881824) English Romantic poet and satirist. Letter to John Murray [22 July 1820]. - I alone am left on earth! To whom nor relative nor blood remains, No! not a kindred drop that runs in human veins. --Thomas Campbell (17771844) Scottish poet. In Samuel Rogers _The Poetical Works of Rogers, Campbell, J. Montgomery, Lamb, and Kirke White_, p. 130 [1830]. He is the truly courageous man who never desponds. --Confucius (551479 B.C.) K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher. In Louis Klopsch _Many Thoughts of Many Minds: A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land_, p. 67 [1896]. Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd away. --William Cowper (17311800) English poet and hymnodist. _The Needless Alarm_, l. 132 in _The Poetical Works of William Cowper_ [1785]. There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and to have recovered hope. --George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (18191880) English novelist. _Adam Bede_, ch. 31 [1859] A broken heart is a distemper which kills many more than is generally imagined, and would have a fair title to a place in the bills of mortality, did it not differ in one instance from all other diseases, namely, that no physicians can cure it. --Henry Fielding (17071754) English novelist and dramatist. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_, p. 123 [10th ed. 1884]. In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning. --F. Scott Fitzgerald (18961940) American novelist. "Handle with Care" in _Esquire_ [March 1936]. Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim. --Graham Greene (19041991) English novelist. _Heart of the Matter_ [1948] You wallow in the guilt; you wallow in the pain You wave it like a flag, you wear it like a crown Got your mind in the gutter, bringin' everybody down Complain about the present and blame it on the past I'd like to find your inner child and kick its little ass. Get over it. --Don Henley (b. 1947) American rock musician. "Get Over It" from the album _Hell Freezes Over_ [1994]. Nil desperandum. Never despair. --Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (658 BC) Roman poet. _Odes_, bk. I, # 7, l. 27 The fountain of my heart dried up within me, With nought that loved me, and with nought to love, I stood upon the desert earth alone. And in that deep and utter agony, Though then, then even most unfit to die I fell upon my knees and pray'd for death. --Charles Robert Maturin (17821824) Irish novelist and dramatist. Attributed in _Great Truths by Great Authors_, p. 110 [1856]. - Whenever Richard Cory went down town, We people on the pavement looked at him: He was a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean-favored and imperially slim. And he was always quietly arrayed, And he was always human when he talked; But still he fluttered pulses when he said, "Good Morning!" and he glittered when he walked. And he was rich, yes, richer than a king, And admirably schooled in every grace: In fine -- we thought that he was everything To make us wish that we were in his place. So on we worked and waited for the light, And went without the meat and cursed the bread, And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet in his head. --Edwin Arlington Robinson (18691935) American poet. "Richard Cory" [1897] - The tragedy of man is what dies inside himself while he still lives. --Albert Schweitzer (18751965) Franco-German theologian, philosopher, and mission doctor. _The Philosophy Of Civilization_ [1923] Tempt not a desperate man. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Romeo and Juliet_, V, iii [1595] Everywhere I see bliss, for which I alone am irrevocably excluded. --Mary Shelley (17971851) English novelist. _Frankenstein_ [1818] - Alas! I have nor hope nor health, Nor peace within nor calm around, Nor that content surpassing wealth The sage in meditation found, And walked with inward glory crowned-- Nor fame, nor power, nor love, nor leisure. Others I see whom these surround-- Smiling they live, and call life pleasure; To me that cup has been dealt in another measure. --Percy Bysshe Shelley (17921822) English poet. "Stanzas written in Dejection, near Naples" [December 1818] No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure. --Percy Bysshe Shelley (17921822) English poet. _Prometheus Unbound_, act I, l. 24 - - The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. --Henry David Thoreau (18171862) American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher. _Walden_, ch. I [1854] & see: Nowadays most men lead lives of noisy desperation. --James Thurber (18941961) American humorist and cartoonist. _Fables for Our Time_ [1940] - ----- slough (noun) ['slu (US), 'slaw (Britain)] 1: A swamp, marsh, tidal flat, or bog at the inlet of a river; a muddy backwater. 2: Deep moral degeneration or despair.  ;void(0)) DESTINY . . Note: The hippo story (above) is apocryphal. see: "ACCIDENT" see: "CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES" see: "CHANCE" see: "CIRCUMSTANCES" see: "FATE" see: "LIFE" see: "ACTIONS" for other related links Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he becomes. --The Bhagavad Gita (c. 5th c BC. 2nd c AD.) Hindu sacred text. Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved. --William Jennings Bryan (18601925) American Democratic and Populist politician who ran for the presidency three times without success. In a speech in Washington, D.C., [22 February 1899]. Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny. --attributed to Tryon Edwards (18091894) American theologian. They who talk much of destiny, their birth-star, etc., are in a lower dangerous plane, and invite the evils they fear. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. In Edmund Clarence Stedman _A Library of American Literature from the Earliest Settlement to the Present_, p. 160 [1888]. We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. --Kahlil Gibran (18831931) Lebanese poet. _Sand and Foam_ [1926], as quoted in _Life Between Life: A Scientific Explorations into the Void_ [1986]. What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. --Henry Stanley Haskins (18751957) _Meditations in Wall Street_ [published anonymously in 1940] Tu ne quaesieris, scire nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi Finem di dederint. (Do not try to find out we're forbidden to know what end the gods have in store for me, or for you.) --Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (658 BC) Roman poet. _Odes_, bk. 1, # 11 A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it. --Jean de La Fontaine (16211695) French poet. _Fables_ [16681679], Book VIII, fable 16 There is a destiny that makes us brothers, None goes his way alone; All that we send into the lives of others, Comes back into our own. --Edwin Markham (18521940) American poet and lecturer. _A Creed_ [1900] That old miracle Love-at-first-sight Needs no explanations. The heart reads aright Its destiny sometimes. --Owen Meredith (pseudonym of Edward Bulwer-Lytton) _Lucile_ p. 317 [1860] The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day. --John Milton (16081674) English poet. _Paradise Regained_, bk. IV, l. 220 [1671] - Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny. --Charles Reade (18141884) English novelist and playwright. Attributed in _Notes and Queries_, 9th series, vol. 12 [JulyDecember 1903]. & note: For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. --Bible "Galatians" 6:7 - There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of others much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. --Franklin D. Roosevelt (18821945) American Democratic statesman and President [19331945]. In his acceptance speech at the Democratic Party National Convention [27 June 1936]. - Look what is done cannot be now amended: Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes, Which after-hours gives leisure to repent. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _King Richard III_, IV, iv [c. 15921593] The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Julius Caesar_, I, ii [1599] - There are today two great peoples on the earth who, setting off from different points of departure, seem to be advancing towards the same goal: they are the Russians and the Anglo-Americans ... Each of them seems to be summoned by a secret plan of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world. --Alexis de Tocqueville (18051859) French historian and politician. _Democracy in America_, bk I, pt. 2, ch. 10 [1835] One never knows, do one? --Thomas "Fats" Waller (19041943) American jazz musician and composer. "Stormy Weather" [1943 film] How weak people are! How they simply accept what happens, as if there were such a thing as destiny, and not just a life to be grappled with. --Fay Weldon (b. 1931) British novelist. _The Life and Loves of a She Devil_ [1983] The day we fashion Destiny, our web of Fate we spin. --John Greenleaf Whittier (18071892) American poet. "The Crisis" [1848] ----- kismet [KIZ-met; -mit], noun: Destiny; fate.  DETERMINATION . . see: "CHOICE" see: "DECISION" see: "PERSEVERANCE" see: "RESOLUTION" see: "WILL" see: "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for other related links see: "SUCCESS" for other related links Consider the postage stamp, my son. It secures success through its ability to stick to one thing till it gets there. --Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (18181885) American humorist. Attributed in Herbert V. Prochnow _Speaker's Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms_ [1955]. And though hard be the task, 'Keep a stiff upper lip.' --Phoebe Cary (18241871) American poet. "Keep a Stiff Upper Lip" I will fight for what I believe in until I drop dead. And that's what keep you alive. --Barbara Castle (19102002) British Labour politician. In "Guardian" [14 January 1998]. [Nikola Tesla] records that the compulsion to finish everything, once started, almost killed him when he began reading the works of Voltaire. To his dismay, he learned that there were close to one hundred volumes in small print "which that monster had written while drinking seventy-two cups of black coffee per diem." But there could be no peace for Tesla until he had read them all. --Margaret Cheney (b. 1921) American journalist and author. _Tesla: Man Out of Time_ [1981], "A Gambling Man" I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time. --Charles Dickens (18121870) English novelist. _David Copperfield_, ch. XIII [1850] History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats. --Robert (Bertie) Charles Forbes (18801954) Scottish-born American jounalist, financier, and the founder of "Forbes" [magazine]. Quoted in "Forbes" [1958]. A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. --Mohandas K. Gandhi (18691948) Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic movement against British rule. Quoted in Nirmal Kumar Bose (ed.) _Selections From Gandhi_, p. 27 [1948]. You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction. --John Graham Letter to his son Pierrepont [10 April 189?] Quoted in George Lorimer (ed.) _Letters From a Self-Made Merchant to His Son_ [1902]. I have not yet begun to fight. (As his ship was sinking [23 September 1779], having been asked whether he had lowered his flag.) --John Paul Jones (17471792) American admiral. In Mrs Reginald De Koven _Life and Letters of John Paul Jones_ [1914]. Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind. --Leonardo da Vinci (14521519) Florentine painter, sculptor, musician, and scientist. In Jean Paul Richter (ed.) _The Literary Works of Leonardo Da Vinci_ [1883 ed.]. - kap posts to USENET in 1998: When we bought a new Kia in September of '96, I thought it would be a good idea for Margaret to have a cell phone when she went to work. You see, the car was too new to be reviewed by 'Consumer Reports', and we really didn't know if it would break down or run. Needless to say, the car did fine and we never had occasion to use the cell phone for the intended purpose. In 15 months I used the phone 4 times. Once to call my daughter from a restaurant in a casino (which I thought was pretty cool.) Once to call my daughter from the pool at our apartment (which I also thought was pretty cool.) And twice on a long Sunday morning bike ride (some Sunday mornings I only go one way, call Margaret, and have her pick me up in the aforementioned Kia.) Now I suppose I could have called Margaret from any one of the 736 7-11's around town, but that wouldn't be nearly as cool as calling from a cell phone. So in 15 months @ $20 a month the charge was approximately $300 (plus the calls) Therefore each of my four cool calls cost me $75. Being of quick mind, I decided to cancel the cell phone. (In fairness to myself, I should explain that I signed a contract for a year, so I couldn't have cancelled before Sept. '97.) Anyway, Christmas Eve I got on the phone with AT&T. With a determination rarely seen around these parts, I picked up the phone and with a steady finger dialed 1-888-whatever. Do you know what the message asks first? "If you want to hear this message in English, press 1, now" I'm thinking, "We are in the United States, aren't we?" After pressing a few more buttons, a guy comes on the line, and without any sales pressure whatsoever, asks, "Why are you cancelling?" I tell him. He says, "Would you be interested in the $9.95 plan." "I don't know, what's that?" He explains. And I swear to God, this is what I said. "Well, I was paying $20 for not using the phone, and now I'll only be paying $10 for not using the phone, so sign me up." Margaret was in the bathroom during the conversation, and when she came out she asked me if the phone was now cancelled. "Kinda cancelled," I said. Margaret said something about the guy laughing his ass off, and something about me being dumb, or words to that affect. She might have called me a dumbass, or said she was going to break my ass, but the words "dumb" and "ass" were definitely used. She called back, and with determination more resolute than mine, cancelled the phone. --kap - Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. --Theodore Roosevelt (18581919) American Republican statesman and President [19011909]. Speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago, Illinois [10 April 1899]. A thing seriously pursued affords true enjoyment. --Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C. 65 A.D.) Roman philosopher and poet. _Epistles_, XXIII, 3, 4 I must keep on rowing, not until I reach port but until I reach my grave. --Germaine de Staλl (17661817) French writer. _Letter to Albertine Necker de Saussure_ [July 1814]. ^ A Northern Virginia housewife was hosting a reception in late summer of 1975 to raise money for a local congressional candidate, Joe Fisher. A few minutes before the scheduled starting time, a pleasant-looking stranger rang her doorbell. "Good afternoon," he said. "My name's Jimmy Carter. I heard you're having a political event here today, and wondered what I could do to help." The accent was Deep South too rich for Arlington, Va., the party-giver knew. Still, the fellow seemed so ingratiating. If she felt flustered, it was only for a moment. "Well, since you ask, I'm afraid we are a little short of ice for the number of guests we're expecting. Do you suppose ... ?" "Don't give it another thought," Jimmy Carter said, and he was off to return with four bags of ice cubes and a chance to present himself to the afternoon's guests as a yet unknown candidate for president. --Lionel Van Deerlin "Presidential Speculation is Probably Pointless" Copley News Service [8 December 2006] ^ ----- inexorable [in-EK-sur-uh-bul], adjective: Not to be persuaded or moved by entreaty or prayer; firm; determined; unyielding; unchangeable; inflexible; relentless. nebbish [NEB-ish], noun: A weak-willed, timid, or ineffectual person. resolve (verb) [ree-'zalv] To firmly commit oneself, as to resolve to quit smoking; Usage: Resolve may be used as a verb or a noun. As a noun it means "commitment, firm intent." stymie (verb) Hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of. Synonyms: blockade, obstruct, embarrass, hinder . . see: "COMMUNICATION" for related links He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. --Edmund Burke (17291797) Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters. _Reflections on the Revolution in France_ [1790] Often you get the best insights by considering extremes by thinking of the opposite of that with which you are directly concerned. --C. Wright Mills (19161962) American sociologist. _The Sociological Imagination_, p. 213 [1959] No honest man will argue on every side. --attributed to Sophocles (496?406 B.C.) Greek dramatist. . . see: "SECRETS" see: "COMMUNICATION" for other related links It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time. --attributed to Tallulah Bankhead (19031968) American actress. The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it. --Sir James Matthew Barrie (18601937) Scottish writer and dramatist. _The Little Minister_, ch. I [1891] A great library contains the diary of the human race. --George Dawson (18211876) English minister. Address on the opening ot the Birmingham Free Library, as quoted in John Alfred Langford _The Birmingham Free Libraries..._, p. 29 [1871]. In Hollywood now when people die they don't say, "Did he leave a will?" but "Did he leave a diary?" --Liza Minelli (b. 1946) American singer and actress. _Observer_ [13 August 1989] I always say, keep a diary and some day it'll keep you. --Mae West (18931980) American stage and film actress. _Every Day's a Holiday_ [1937 film] I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. --Oscar Wilde (18541900) Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet. _The Importance of Being Earnest_ [1895] . . see: "AUTHORS" see: "BOOKS" see: "PEOPLE" for other related links No one thinks first of Mr. Dickens as a writer. He is at once, through his books, a friend. He belongs among the intimates of every pleasant-tempered and large-hearted person. He is not so much the guest as the inmate of our homes. He keeps holidays with us, he helps us to celebrate Christmas with heartier cheer, he shares at every New Year in our good wishes: for, indeed, it is not in his purely literary character that he has done most for us, it is as a man of the largest humanity, who has simply used literature as the means by which to bring himself into relation with his fellow-men. --Charles Eliot Norton (18271908) American scholar. In _North American Review_ [April 1868]. In its attitude towards Dickens the English public has always been a little like the elephant which feels a blow with a walking-stick as a delightful tickling. ... Dickens seems to have succeeded in attacking everybody and antagonising nobody. --George Orwell [Eric Blair] (19031950) English novelist. _Charles Dickens_ [1940] - "New Yorker" cartoon, publisher to author: "Come now, Mr Dickens; it must have been either the best of times or the worst of times. It could hardly have been both!" - end page | DANCING - DAY | DEATH - PAGE 1 (A-G) | DEATH - PAGE 2 (H-Z) | DEBATE - DEEDS | DECEPTION | DEFEAT - DELAY | DEMOCRACY | DENIAL - DESIRE | DESPAIR - DICKENS (CHARLES) | DICTIONARY - DILIGENCE | DINNER - DISABILITY | DISAGREEMENT - DISGUISE | DISHONESTY - DOCTORS | DOGS | (ON) DOING GOOD - DREAMS | DRESS - DRUNKENNESS | DUELS - DUTY | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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