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Quotes About Despair

Stripped of the diadem and purple, clothed in a vile habit, and loaded with chains, he was transported in a small boat to the Imperial galley of Heraclius, who reproached him with the crimes of his abominable reign. Wilt thou govern better? were the last words of the despair of Phocas.
~ Edward Gibbon
The conflict was terrible; it was the combat of despair against grief and rage.
~ Edward Gibbon
He there experienced that the most absolute power is a weak defence against the effects of despair.
~ Edward Gibbon
The forests and morasses of Germany were filled with a hardy race of barbarians, who despised life when it was separated from freedom; and though, on the first attack, they seemed to yield to the weight of the Roman power, they soon, by a signal act of despair, regained their independence, and reminded Augustus of the vicissitude of fortune.
~ Edward Gibbon
The sky has grown completely black, It's time to think of turning back. Fall down, or scream, or rush about- There is no way of getting out.
~ Edward Gorey
The light is fading from the day. The rest is darkness and dismay.
~ Edward Gorey
He is smitten on the brain, -he reads and writes verses! I caught him in the act! Fools might say he was inspired; but I know it is the first and worst symptom of lunacy. All other maniacs have lucid intervals; some are curable; but the madness of poets, dogs, and musicians, is past hope. Earth possesses no remedy, science no cure.
~ Edward John Trelawny
He stood there for a very long time, and the longer he stood, the more he sank. All the heart he had for living in the world began to leave him. He could feel the life running down his chest, his arms and legs, doing something for the ground that it had never been able to do for him.
~ Edward P. Jones
And my heart is a handful of dust, / And the wheels go over my head, / And my bones are shaken with pain, / For into a shallow grave they are thrust, / Only a yard beneath the street,' something, something, 'enough to drive one mad.
~ Edward St. Aubyn
Capital erosion was another way to waste his substance, to become as thin and hollow as he felt, to lighten the burden of undeserved good fortune, and commit a symbolic suicide while he still dithered about the real one. He also nursed the opposite fantasy that when he became penniless he would discover some incandescent purpose born of his need to make money.
~ Edward St. Aubyn
Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.3 What do you see in your own heart?
~ Edward T. Welch
Put a dozen relatively like-minded people into the same crisis and you will see a dozen different responses. Some are heroes; others are cowards. Some are leaders; others are followers. Some are optimistic; others despair. Some shake their fist at God; others quietly submit. You don't really know who you are until you have gone through suffering. We can measure our spiritual growth by the way we behave under pressure. Throughout
~ Edward T. Welch
Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair.
~ Edward T. Welch
James intentionally enlarges the scope of suffering when he writes, "trials of many kinds." By doing this, he invites those who experience depression to learn that, whatever the cause, depression will test our faith and serve as a catalyst for growth rather than a reason for despair. Yes, depression is spiritual in the same way that all suffering brings us face-to-face with critical spiritual realities.
~ Edward T. Welch
When I'm depressed, pain is my friend. I wallow in pain. It's what I am familiar with. I'll tell you that I hate my pain and that there is nothing good about it, but I still hold onto it. I'm so dead inside, so empty of any enthusiasm or hope. My pain reminds me that I'm alive. It allows me to be angry.
~ Edward T. Welch
Isaiah himself was only more aware of his shame as it stood in contrast to the perfection and purity of the Lord. It brought him to despair at his predicament. But despair is not a bad thing when it compels us to trust in or be associated with God himself.
~ Edward T. Welch
What does your worship look like? Anxiety, despair, shopping, primping, acting like someone you aren't, acting stupid when you are smart, or acting like you don't care when you do? Why do you do it? You are hoping that, if you worship it correctly, the idol will give you what you want. But idols are notoriously slow in responding.
~ Edward T. Welch
There is not love of life without despair about life.
~ Albert Camus
Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.
~ Albert Camus
Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.
~ Albert Camus
He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.
~ Albert Camus
To abandon oneself to principles is really to die - and to die for an impossible love which is the contrary of love.
~ Albert Camus
For if there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.
~ Albert Camus
He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hope for the human condition is a fool.
~ Albert Camus