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Despair: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
. I will indulge my sorrows, and give way To all the pangs and fury of despair— ADDISON — Cato. Act IV. Sc. 3.
Despair of ever being saved, "except thou God "without Christ except be born again," or of seeing God without holiness," or of having part in Christ except mother, or thy is one of the thou love him above father, mother, or thy own life." This kind of despair is one of the first steps to heaven.— BAXTER — Saint's Rest. Ch. VI.
The world goes whispering to its own, "This anguish pierces to the bone;" And tender friends go sighing round, "What love can ever cure this wound?" My days go on, my days go on. C.— E. B. BROWNING — De Profundis. St. 5.
The name of the slough was Despond.— BUNYAN — Pilgrim's Progress. Pt. I. Ch.
II. Hark! to the hurried question of Despair: "Where is my child?"-an Echo answers- "Where?"— BYRON — The Bride of Abydos. Canto II. St. 27.
Hope, withering, fled-and Mercy sighed farewell.— BYRON — The Corsair. Canto I. St. 9.
Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, away. . L. 132. Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd— COWPER — Needless Alarm
To tell men that they cannot help themand selves is to fling them into recklessness despair.— FROUDE — Short Studies on Great
Subjects. Calvinism. How gladly would I meet Mortality my sentence, and be earth Insensible! how glad would lay me down As in my mother's lap!— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. X. L. 775.
So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear, is lost; Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost; Evil, be thou my good.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. IV. L. 108.
Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest spirit fiercer by That fought in heaven, now fiercer by dedespair.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. II. L. 44.
Thus repuls'd, our final hope Is flat despair.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. II. L. 141.
Thus with the year Seasons return, but not to me returns even Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn, or morn, summer's rose, Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, face divine; -during dark Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine; But cloud instead, and ever ways Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men knowledge fair of men Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair blank Presented with a universal Of Nature's works to me expunged and rased, quite shut out. . Bk. III. And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.— MILTON — Paradise Lost L. 40.
Discomfort guides my tongue And bids me speak of nothing but despair. III. Sc. 2. L. 65 .— Shakespeare — Richard II. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 65.
For nothing canst thou to damnation add Greater than that.— Shakespeare — Othello. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 372.
I am a tainted wether of the flock, Meetest for death; the weakest kind of fruit and so let me. Act IV. Sc. 1. Drops earliest to the ground; and SO let me. L. Merchant of Venice. 114. Let me have A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear all the veins As will disperse itself through all the veins may fall dead That the life-weary taker may fall dead And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath As violently as hasty powder fir'd Act V. Sc. 1. Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.— Shakespeare — Romeo and Juliet. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 59.
Oh, break, my heart! poor bankrupt, break Y at once! To prison, eyes, ne'er look on liberty! end Vile earth, to earth resign; end motion here; motion here; one heavy bier! Act III. Sc. 2. And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier!— Shakespeare — Romeo and Juliet. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 57.
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, a dew! Thaw and resolve itself into a dew !— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 129.
S. That it should come to this! But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two!— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 137.
They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, course. But, bear-like, I must fight the V. Sc. 7. L. 1. Macbeth. Act Thou tyrant! Do not repent these things, for they are heavier Than all thy woes can stir: therefore, betake thee To nothing but despair.— Shakespeare — Winter's Tale. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 208.
Would I were dead! if God's good will were so: For what is in this world but grief and woe? a. Henry VI.— Shakespeare — Pt. III. Act II. Sc. 5. L. 19.
You take my house when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house; you take my life When you do take the means whereby I live. Merchant of— Shakespeare — Venice. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 375.
No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.— SHELLEY — Prometheus Unbound. Act I. L. 24.
*** then black despair, The shadow of a starless night, was thrown Over the world in which I moved alone.— SHELLEY — Revolt of Islam. Dedication. St. 6.
Inconsolable to the minuet in Ariadne!— SHERIDAN — The Critic. Act II. Sc. 2.
Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through his cypress-trees! Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, Nor looks to see the breaking day Across the mournful marbles play!— WHITTIER — Snow-Bound. L. 204.
The fear that kills; And hope that is unwilling to be fed.— WORDSWORTH — Resolution and
Independence. When pain can't bless, heaven quits us in despair.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night IX. L. 500.
Nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice concepta. Teucro. Never despair while under the guidance and auspices of Teucer.— HORACE — Carmina. I. 7. 27.