There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when read more

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 have recovered hope.

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.

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.

No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.

No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.

. . . then black despair
The shadow of a starless night, was thrown
Over the world read more

. . . then black despair
The shadow of a starless night, was thrown
Over the world in which I moved alone.

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.

O that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or read more

O that this too too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter.

But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

Action is the antidote to despair.

Action is the antidote to despair.