quotations about misery
Man is unhappy because he doesn't know he's happy. It's only that.
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
The Possessed
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
Misery travels free through the whole world!
FRIEDRICH SCHILLER
Wallenstein's Tod
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
Extreme hopes are born of extreme misery.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
Unpopular Essays
Perhaps it may be found more easy to forget those tempers we learnt in misery.
EDMUND LAW
attributed, Day's Collacon
But all these were things he could not want, because they were things he could not have, and wanting what you could not have led to misery and madness.
CASSANDRA CLARE
Clockwork Prince
Every misery that I miss is a new mercy.
IZAAK WALTON
The Complete Angler
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
Misery makes sport to mock itself.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Richard II
I don't reckon misery loves any damn thing at all.
BRUCE MACHART
The Wake of Forgiveness
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
Life is not an easy matter.... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.
LEON TROTSKY
Diary in Exile, 1935
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
All of which misery I saw, part of which I was.
VIRGIL
Aeneid
But O yet more miserable!
Myself my sepulchre, a moving grave.
JOHN MILTON
Samson Agonistes
Meagre were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Romeo and Juliet
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
The child of misery, baptized in tears!
J. LANGHORNE
The Country Justice