Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in read more

Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.

Despair is like forward children, who, when you take away one of their playthings, throw the rest into the fire read more

Despair is like forward children, who, when you take away one of their playthings, throw the rest into the fire for madness. It grows angry with itself, turns its own executioner, and revenges its misfortunes on its own head.

Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim. It is, one is told, the unforgivable sin, read more

Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim. It is, one is told, the unforgivable sin, but it is a sin the corrupt or evil man never practices. He always has hope. He never reaches the freezing-point of knowing absolute failure. Only the man of goodwill carries always in his heart this capacity for damnation.

The man who lives only by hope will die with despair.

The man who lives only by hope will die with despair.

If thou dost slander her and torture me,
Never pray more; abandon all remorse;
On horror's head read more

If thou dost slander her and torture me,
Never pray more; abandon all remorse;
On horror's head horrors accumulate;
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed;
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that.

The world goes whispering to its own,
"This anguish pierces to the bone;"
And tender friends go read more

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.

Above all, we must abolish hope in the heart of man. A calm despair, without angry convulsions, without reproaches to read more

Above all, we must abolish hope in the heart of man. A calm despair, without angry convulsions, without reproaches to Heaven, is the essence of wisdom.

When we are flat on our backs there is no way to look but up.

When we are flat on our backs there is no way to look but up.

Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim

Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim