The name of the Slough was Despond.

The name of the Slough was Despond.

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.]

. . . 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Despair ruins some, presumption many.

Despair ruins some, presumption many.

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

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