quotations about misery
The wretched hasten to hear of their own miseries.
SENECA THE YOUNGER
Hercules Oetaeus
Every misery that I miss is a new mercy.
IZAAK WALTON
The Complete Angler
Ah how shameless -- the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone they say come all their miseries yes but they themselves with their own reckless ways compound their pains beyond their proper share.
HOMER
The Odyssey
Thou art not born to misery; the Almighty never called any of His creatures into existence to render them unhappy; yet man may be wretched from his own follies and vices; his reason may yield to the wild impulses of tumultuous passion; then man is wretched, and every seeming good is perverted into misery.
CONRAD GESSNER
attributed, Day's Collacon
We often see misery dwelling in the midst of splendor, whilst real happiness is found in humbler stations.
HERODOTUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any misery, any depression, since after all you don't know what work these conditions are doing inside you? Why do you want to persecute yourself with the question of where all this is coming from and where it is going? Since you know, after all, that you are in the midst of transitions and you wished for nothing so much as to change. If there is anything unhealthy in your reactions, just bear in mind that sickness is the means by which an organism frees itself from what is alien; so one must simply help it to be sick, to have its whole sickness and to break out with it, since that is the way it gets better.
RAINER MARIA RILKE
Letters to a Young Poet
Misery pulls away the brackets of life leaving you to free fall.
JEANETTE WINTERSON
Written on the Body
Extreme hopes are born of extreme misery.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
Unpopular Essays
Life is such unutterable hell, solely because it is sometimes beautiful. If we could only be miserable all the time, if there could be no such things as love or beauty or faith or hope, if I could be absolutely certain that my love would never be returned: how much more simple life would be. One could plod through the Siberian salt mines of existence without being bothered about happiness. Unfortunately the happiness is there. There is always the chance (about eight hundred and fifty to one) that another heart will come to mine. I can't help hoping, and keeping faith, and loving beauty.
T. H. WHITE
Ghostly, Grim and Gruesome
I hate all pain,
Given or received; we have enough within us
The meanest vassal as the loftiest monarch,
Not to add to each other's natural burden
Of mortal misery.
LORD BYRON
Sardanapalus
All that was really there was still more misery -- oh yes! as much of that as you like.
EMILE ZOLA
Germinal
Misery makes sport to mock itself.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Richard II
Meagre were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it.
BOETHIUS
The Consolation of Philosophy
But O yet more miserable!
Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave.
JOHN MILTON
Samson Agonistes
Ah, happiness courts the light, so we deem the world is gay; but misery hides aloof, so we deem that misery there is none.
HERMAN MELVILLE
Bartleby, the Scrivener
But misery still delights to trace
Its semblance in another's case.
WILLIAM COWPER
The Castaway
Misery's fine -- as long as you know you can get out of it when you want to.
ARTHUR ADAMOV
Ping Pong
The child of misery, baptized in tears!
J. LANGHORNE
The Country Justice
I would cling to unhappiness because it was a known, familiar state. When I was happier, it was because I knew I was on my way back to misery. I've never been convinced that happiness is the object of the game. I'm wary of happiness.
HUGH LAURIE
attributed, Inside Inside