Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven

Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven

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.

. . . 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.

The name of the Slough was Despond.

The name of the Slough was Despond.

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.

Discomfort guides my tongue
And bids me speak of nothing but despair.

Discomfort guides my tongue
And bids me speak of nothing but despair.

Despair is a great incentive to honorable death.
[Lat., Desperatio magnum ad honeste moriendum incitamentum.]

Despair is a great incentive to honorable death.
[Lat., Desperatio magnum ad honeste moriendum incitamentum.]

But, O thou tyrant,
Do not repent these things, for they are heavier
Than all thy woes read more

But, O thou tyrant,
Do not repent these things, for they are heavier
Than all thy woes can stir. Therefore betake thee
To nothing but despair.