Quotes about sadness (1407 quotes, page 14)

“He dooms himself. He is his own sad jest.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Christ, Old Student in a New School (1972)
Context: And from above a voice fused half in iron
Half in irony gives man a dreadful choice.
The role is his, it says, Man makes and loads his own strange dice,
They sum at his behest,
He dooms himself. He is his own sad jest.
Let go? Let be?
Why do you ask this gift from Me?
When, trussed and bound and nailed,
You sacrifice your life, your liberty
You hang yourself upon the tenterhook.
Pull free!

“Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me;
Say I'm growing old, but add
Jenny kissed me.”

Leigh Hunt Jenny Kissed Me

"Jenny Kissed Me", in The Monthly Chronicle (November 1838)
Context: Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in.
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me;
Say I'm growing old, but add
Jenny kissed me.

Health , Kiss , Wealth

“Science, in consequence, has been accused of undermining morals—but wrongly. The ethical behavior of man is better based on sympathy, education and social relationships, and requires no support from religion. Man's plight would, indeed, be sad if he had to be kept in order through fear of punishment and hope of rewards after death.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Wording in Ideas and Opinions: The man who is thoroughly convinced of the universal operation of the law of causation cannot for a moment entertain the idea of a being who interferes in the course of events — provided, of course, that he takes the hypothesis of causality really seriously. He has no use for the religion of fear and equally little for social or moral religion. A God who rewards and punishes is inconceivable to him for the simple reason that a man's actions are determined by necessity, external and internal, so that in God's eyes he cannot be responsible, any more than an inanimate object is responsible for the motions it undergoes. Science has therefore been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hopes of reward after death.
Variant: "It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere" has been cited http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/einstein.htm as a statement that precedes the last three sentences here, but in fact this is a separate quote from a 1947 letter Einstein wrote to Murray W. Gross, included in the Einstein and Religion (1999) section below (and in the letter the word used is "anthropomorphic," not "anthropological").
1930s, Religion and Science (1930)
Context: For any one who is pervaded with the sense of causal law in all that happens, who accepts in real earnest the assumption of causality, the idea of Being who interferes with the sequence of events in the world is absolutely impossible. Neither the religion of fear nor the social-moral religion can have any hold on him. A God who rewards and punishes is for him unthinkable, because man acts in accordance with an inner and outer necessity, and would, in the eyes of God, be as little responsible as an inanimate object is for the movements which it makes. Science, in consequence, has been accused of undermining morals—but wrongly. The ethical behavior of man is better based on sympathy, education and social relationships, and requires no support from religion. Man's plight would, indeed, be sad if he had to be kept in order through fear of punishment and hope of rewards after death.

Death , Education , Fear , Religion

“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"”

John Greenleaf Whittier Maud Muller

Bret Harte wrote a famous parody of this famous poem, "Mrs. Judge Jenkins" in which the Judge marries Maud, and which he ends with the lines:
Maud soon thought the Judge a bore,
With all his learning and all his lore;
And the Judge would have bartered Maud's fair face
For more refinement and social grace.
If, of all words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are, "It might have been,"
More sad are these we daily see:
"It is, but hadn't ought to be".
Maud Muller (1856)
Context: Alas for maiden, alas for Judge,
For rich repiner and household drudge!
God pity them both! and pity us all,
Who vainly the dreams of youth recall;
For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: "It might have been!"

Heartbreaking , Depressing , Sad

“No society has been able to abolish human sadness, no political system can deliver us from the pain of living, from our fear of death, our thirst for the absolute. It is the human condition that directs the social condition, not vice versa.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

"A Reply to Kenneth Tynan: The Playwright's Role" in The Observer (29 June 1958)
Context: I believe that what separates us all from one another is simply society itself, or, if you like, politics. This is what raises barriers between men, this is what creates misunderstanding.
If I may be allowed to express myself paradoxically, I should say that the truest society, the authentic human community, is extra-social — a wider, deeper society, that which is revealed by our common anxieties, our desires, our secret nostalgias. The whole history of the world has been governed by nostalgias and anxieties, which political action does no more than reflect and interpret, very imperfectly. No society has been able to abolish human sadness, no political system can deliver us from the pain of living, from our fear of death, our thirst for the absolute. It is the human condition that directs the social condition, not vice versa.

Death , Pain , Fear

“Is it then so sad a thing to die?”
Usque adeone mori miserum est?

Virgil Aeneid

Source: Aeneid (29–19 BC), Book XII, Line 646 (tr. Alexander Thomson)

“Every silence is composed of nothing but unspoken words. Perhaps that is why I became a musician. Someone had to express this silence, make it render up all the sadness it contained, make it sing as it were.”

Marguerite Yourcenar (1903–1987) French writer

Alexis (1929)
Context: Every silence is composed of nothing but unspoken words. Perhaps that is why I became a musician. Someone had to express this silence, make it render up all the sadness it contained, make it sing as it were. Someone had to use not words, which are always too precise not to be cruel, but simply music.

Silence , Singing

“The songwriting style, to me, is superior… there was a certain amount of joy in it, no matter how sad the song is.”

M. Ward (1973) singer-songwriter and guitarist

On songwriting styles of the post-World War II era, in an interview with Bob Boilen on All Songs Considered (17 November 2006) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15961159 (NPR)
Context: The songwriting style, to me, is superior... there was a certain amount of joy in it, no matter how sad the song is. You get joy in listening to these Buddy Holly or Roy Orbison sad lyrics. I'm attracted to songs that have balance between the darks and the lights and giving them all equal opportunity.

Joy

“There are certain sad appreciations we have to come to about human nature on the basis of these recent wars. One of them is that suffering does not always make men better. Another is that people are not always more reasonable than governments; that public opinion, or what passes for public opinion, is not invariably a moderating force in the jungle of politics.”

George F. Kennan (1904–2005) American advisor, diplomat, political scientist and historian

American Diplomacy (1951), World War I
Context: There are certain sad appreciations we have to come to about human nature on the basis of these recent wars. One of them is that suffering does not always make men better. Another is that people are not always more reasonable than governments; that public opinion, or what passes for public opinion, is not invariably a moderating force in the jungle of politics. It may be true, and I suspect it is, that the mass of people everywhere are normally peace-loving and would accept many restraints and sacrifices in preference to the monstrous calamities of war. But I also suspect that what purports to be public opinion in most countries that consider themselves to have popular government is often not really the consensus of the feelings of the mass of the people at all, but rather the expression of the interests of special highly vocal minorities — politicians, commentators, and publicity-seekers of all sorts: people who live by their ability to draw attention to themselves and die, like fish out of water, if they are compelled to remain silent. These people take refuge in the pat and chauvinistic slogans because they are incapable of understanding any others, because these slogans are safer from the standpoint of short-term gain, because the truth is sometimes a poor competitor in the market place of ideas — complicated, unsatisfying, full of dilemma, always vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse. The counsels of impatience and hatred can always be supported by the crudest and cheapest symbols; for the counsels of moderation, the reasons are often intricate, rather than emotional, and difficult to explain. And so the chauvinists of all times and places go their appointed way: plucking the easy fruits, reaping the little triumphs of the day at the expense of someone else tomorrow, deluging in noise and filth anyone who gets in their way, dancing their reckless dance on the prospects for human progress, drawing the shadow of a great doubt over the validity of democratic institutions. And until people learn to spot the fanning of mass emotions and the sowing of bitterness, suspicion, and intolerance as crimes in themselves — as perhaps the greatest disservice that can be done to the cause of popular government — this sort of thing will continue to occur.

Men , War , People , Nature

“I want more than anything for my children to be happy, and I love them because they are sad, and the erratic project of kneading that sadness into joy is the engine of my life as a father, as a son, as a friend—and as a writer.”

Andrew Solomon (1963) American journalist

Source: Far from the Tree, Ch. 12 Father, p. 701.

Love , Life , Children , Joy

“In a measure the Great Sadness was lifted from me, and, where I had seen omnipresent death, I saw now everywhere the pageant and triumph of life.”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

Transition (1927)
Context: I felt more keenly than before the need of a philosophy that would do justice to the infinite vitality of nature. In the inexhaustible activity of the atom, in the endless resourcefulness of plants, in the teeming fertility of animals, in the hunger and movement of infants, in the laughter and play of children, in the love and devotion of youth, in the restless ambition of fathers and the lifelong sacrifice of mothers, in the undiscourageable researches of scientists and the sufferings of genius, in the crucifixion of prophets and the martyrdom of saints — in all things I saw the passion of life for growth and greatness, the drama of everlasting creation. I came to think of myself, not as a dance and chaos of molecules, but as a brief and minute portion of that majestic process... I became almost reconciled to mortality, knowing that my spirit would survive me enshrined in a fairer mold... and that my little worth would somehow be preserved in the heritage of men. In a measure the Great Sadness was lifted from me, and, where I had seen omnipresent death, I saw now everywhere the pageant and triumph of life.

Life , Death

“When the sad sun sinks,
It shall pierce through the body of wax till it shrinks!”

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898) French Symbolist poet

Nurse.
Hérodiade (1898)
Context: When the sad sun sinks,
It shall pierce through the body of wax till it shrinks!
No sunset, but the red awakening
Of the last day concluding everything
Struggles so sadly that time disappears,
The redness of apocalypse, whose tears
Fall on the child, exiled to her own proud
Heart, as the swan makes its plumage a shroud
For its eyes, the old swan, and is carried away
From the plumage of grief to the eternal highway
Of its hopes, where it looks on the diamonds divine
Of a moribund star, which never more shall shine!

Sun

“A slow autumn rain:
The sad eyes of my mother
Fill a lonely night.”

Richard Wright (1908–1960) African-American writer

Haiku: This Other World (1998)

Autumn , Night

“Education is a slow process, and may not come too quickly. Anarchists who endeavor to hasten it by joining in the propaganda of State Socialism or revolution make a sad mistake indeed.”

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1854–1939) American journalist and anarchist

Editorial postscript to and edition of State Socialism and Anarchism : How Far They Agree, and Wherin They Differ (11 August 1926)
Context: Education is a slow process, and may not come too quickly. Anarchists who endeavor to hasten it by joining in the propaganda of State Socialism or revolution make a sad mistake indeed. They help to so force the march of events that the people will not have time to find out, by the study of their experience, that their troubles have been due to the rejection of competition. If this lesson shall not be learned in a season, the past will be repeated in the future, in which case we shall have to turn for consolation to the doctrine of Nietzsche that this is bound to happen anyhow, or to the reflection of Renan that, from the point of view of Sirius, all these matters are of little moment.

Education

“Sad times
May follow your tracks,
Bad times
May bar you from Saks,
Add times
When Satan in slacks
Breaks down your self control...”

Cole Porter (1891–1964) American composer and songwriter

"Ace in the Hole"
Let's Face It (1941)

Time

“The most extraordinary change in Moscow was Arbat Street, the USSR's first pedestrian mall. Of course, there's something a little sad about a pedestrian mall in a nation where few people own cars— the whole damn country's a pedestrian mall.”

P. J. O'Rourke book Holidays in Hell

Holidays in Hell (1989)

People , Cars , Change , Country

“Now at the moment the world is suffering from large numbers of people who have no purpose in life — for whom there is no opportunity — and that's sad.”

Jonas Salk (1914–1995) Inventor of polio vaccine

The Open Mind interview (1985)
Context: I look upon ourselves as partners in all of this, and that each of us contributes and does what he can do best. And so I see not a top rung and a bottom rung — I see all this horizontally — and I see this as part of a matrix. And I see every human being as having a purpose, a destiny, if you like. And what my hope is that we can find some way to fulfill the biological potential, if you like — the destiny that exists in each of us — and find ways and means to provide such opportunities for everyone. Now at the moment the world is suffering from large numbers of people who have no purpose in life — for whom there is no opportunity — and that's sad.

Life , People , World , Suffering

“I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists.”

Mikhail Kalashnikov (1919–2013) Soviet and Russian small arms designer

As quoted in "Kalashnikov: 'I wish I'd made a lawnmower'" by Kate Connolly, in The Guardian (29 July 2002) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jul/30/russia.kateconnolly
Context: I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists. … I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work — for example a lawnmower.

“My dear countrymen and women, sisters and brothers, this supreme responsibility has been entrusted to me after the sad passing of my illustrious father, in one of the darkest periods in our history, at the very time when our national and spiritual principles, our historical and cultural values, our civilization, are threatened from within; at the very time when anarchy, economic collapse, and the decline of our international prestige have given rise to the violation of our territorial integrity, which we condemn.
I am well aware that none of you, whose national pride and patriotic spirit are inborn, that none of you who are deeply attached to your national identity, your faith, the sacred principles of true Islam, your historical values, and your cultural heritage, has wanted such a disaster to come about. That is why, understanding your suffering and sensing your unshed tears, I join your pain. I know that, like me, you can see the calm dawn of a new day rising through this darkness. I know that deep in your souls and hearts you have the firm conviction that, as in the past, our history, which is several thousands of years old, will repeat itself and the nightmare will end. Light will follow darkness. Strengthened by our bitter experiences, we will all join together in a great national effort, the reconstruction of our country. With the help of the right reforms and the active participation of all, we will realize our ideals.
We will rebuild a new Iran, where equality, liberty, and justice prevail. Inspired by the true faith of Islam founded on spirituality, love, and mercy, we will make Iran a proud and prosperous country, having the place it deserves in the concert of nations.”

Reza Pahlavi (1960) Last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran

Kibbeh Palace, Cairo, Oct. 31, 1980, as quoted in Farah Pahlavi (2004) An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah, p. 434.
Speeches, 1980

Love , Women , Pain , Faith

“Good humor is the health of the soul, sadness its poison. ”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) British statesman and man of letters

Sad , Health , Soul

“It's a sad thing not to have friends, but it is even sadder not to have enemies. ”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

“My motivation is that inner driving force within me to share my music with the world. I want to get my music out there so I can inspire people just as I have been inspired through music. Music makes you feel; whether it’s happy, sad, or a million different emotions which come to mind, music can invoke those feelings. That’s inspiration to me. ”

Мэдисон Роуз

People , World , Music , Feeling

“Byron! how sweetly sad thy melody!
Attuning still the soul to tenderness,
As if soft Pity, with unusual stress,
Had touched her plaintive lute, and thou, being by,
Hadst caught the tones, nor suffered them to die.
O'ershading sorrow doth not make thee less
Delightful: thou thy griefs dost dress
With a bright halo, shining beamily,
As when a cloud a golden moon doth veil,
Its sides are tinged with a resplendent glow,
Through the dark robe oft amber rays prevail,
And like fair veins in sable marble flow;
Still warble, dying swan! still tell the tale,
The enchanting tale, the tale of pleasing woe. ”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Soul , Suffering

“It's OK to be sad.
It's OK to be angry.
It's OK to be joyful.
It's OK to feel.”

Ralph Smart

Source: yt

Feeling

“Don’t feel sad over someone who gave up on you, feel sorry for them because they gave up on someone who would have never given up on them.”

Ralph Smart

Heartbreaking , Feeling

“You know why it's hard to be happy? It's because we refuse to let go of the things that make us sad.”

Ralph Smart

facebook

Making love , Happiness

“After meeting Mr Modi, I was moved by his sincerity. I found him to be fair and sincere in terms of his intention to end the riots. He seemed worried and sad because his police had failed him in ending this violence; he wanted me to take whatever steps I deemed fit to end this violence and assured me whole-hearted support... I realised that people of all political parties, who were anti-Modi and anti-BJP, were taking advantage of this mayhem and making all efforts to defame Modi one way or the other.”

Kanwar Pal Singh Gill (1934–2017) Indian police officer

K.P.S. Gill, Central Government appointed special advisor to Gujarat CM, May 2002 in Madhu Purnima Kishwar: Modi, Muslims and Media. Voices from Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, Manushi Publications, Delhi 2014.

Support , People , Heart , Sincerity

“Usually, I take great pleasure in finding a notebook that’s going to match the subject matter. And this time, for some reason, I was in a hurry. I hadn’t found the right one, I had started my research, and I couldn’t wait for the perfect notebook. So, I just grabbed one that I had. It’s the first time though, and it felt a little sad.”

Tracy Chevalier (1962) American writer

On choosing a notebook for each novel that she writes in “An Interview with Tracy Chevalier” https://fictionwritersreview.com/interview/an-interview-with-tracy-chevalier/ in Fiction Writers Review (2019 Sep 23)

Time , Waiting , Perfection , Pleasure

“There was so much joy in the making of this film, despite the fact that it’s about such a sad, traumatic experience…We all felt like we were part of something so real and so necessary. It was a joy to go on set every day and tell these real people’s story. Doing this movie, I discovered that joy is not the negation of pain, but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.”

Lupita Nyong'o (1983) Mexican-Kenyan actress and film director

On making the film 12 Years a Slave in “LUPITA NYONG’O” https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/lupita-nyongo in Interview Magazine (2013 Nov 5)

Pain , People , Joy , Making love

“The intellectual hierarchy has been demolished. It’s a sad commentary that in the world’s largest democracy, writers’ protest has become a subject of jokes. The power-hungry artists, writers, academics, and media-persons in India waste a huge amount of time making political statements to hide behind their lack of intellectual stands. Michel Houellebecq wrote Submission, a strong political statement; he didn’t get press coverage for returning some award. The lustre is gone from our intellectual discourse. Secularism has lost its ideological currency. Artists, writers, activists are all suspect. Media czars have lost their access to the corridors of power and to people’s hearts. It’s the overclass’ space that has been taken over by the underclass. Their discomfort is with the new order where the others are also heard. Hence, the feeling of shrinking space. They are intolerant of this new phenomenon – the emergence of the underclass. They try to devalue this new, empowered underclass by associating it with Modi and, therefore, Hindutva, and that’s a grave mistake. The universe that was full of their voice has expanded to accommodate this new voice. This is what they call an attack on FoE and growing intolerance.”

Vivek Agnihotri (1973) director

Urban Naxals (2018)

Democracy , Time , Strong , Personality

“Sad is a fake word for me to be using, I am still angry that their reason for disagreeing with McCarthy was too often his crude methods.... Many of the anti-Communists were, of course, honest men. But none of them... has stepped forward to admit a mistake. It is not necessary in this country; they too know that we are a people who do not remember much. I have written here that I have recovered. I mean it only in a worldly sense because I do not believe in recovery. The past, with its pleasures, its rewards, its foolishness, its punishments, is there for each of us forever, and it should be.”

Lillian Hellman (1905–1984) American dramatist and screenwriter

Source: Scoundrel Time (1976), p. 150

Country , Past , People , Pleasure

“I thought back to Europe being invaded by the Nazi army with great sadness … For me, seeing Europe had been everything. When I came back to Cuba, I was taken aback by its nature, by the traditions of the Blacks, and by the transculturation of its African and Catholic religions. And so I began to orientate my paintings toward the African.”

Wifredo Lam (1902–1982) Cuban artist

On painting after returning to Cuba in “Wifredo Lam: Man of the World” https://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/wifredo-lam-man-of-world (Tate; 2016 Aug 16)

Religion , Painting , Nature

“Here it is—the might, the power, the energy, the sadness, the glory, the youthfulness of our lands.”

Diego Rivera (1886–1957) Mexican painter, muralist, Communist

On the layout of New York City (as quoted in the book The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera https://books.google.com/books?id=Fmi5J6Q_wzIC&printsec=frontcover&dq)

Youth

“I know in a way I never knew before that there is nowhere for me to go, nothing for me to do, and no one for me to know. The voice in my head keeps reciting these old principles of mine. The voice is his voice, and the voice is also my voice. And there are other voices, voices I have never heard before, voices that seem to be either dead or dying in a great moonlit darkness. More than ever, some sort of new arrangement seems in order, some dramatic and unknown arrangement -- anything to find release from this heartbreaking sadness I suffer every minute of the day (and night), this killing sadness that feels as if it will never leave me no matter where I go or what I do or whom I may ever know.”

Thomas Ligotti (1953) American horror author

The Nightmare Factory

Night , Dead , Suffering , Way

“Jack Chick was one of the skid marks in the tighty-whiteys of my generation, and the world is a better place that he’s not stinking it up with his fecal fallacies anymore. Welcome to oblivion Mr Chick, where you will rot without grace in a reality that never had a god in it, and where none of your lies ever came true. The only sad part (for me) is that the moment your brain shut off, you were never able to know how wrong you were about everything you ever said. You never even had the chance to be disappointed, and are blissfully unaware of your eternal failure, you miserable awful piece of shit.”

Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast

"Rest in oblivion, Jack Chick" http://www.patheos.com/blogs/reasonadvocates/2016/10/25/rest-oblivion-jack-chick/, Patheos (October 25, 2016)
Patheos

God , Chance , Disappointment , Reality

“The sad and unmistakable thing one observes in looking out over the universe of conscious existence is the preponderance of egoism, the intense and almost maniacal regard with which beings, as a rule, act in behalf of themselves, and the lukewarm consideration, on the whole, allowed to others.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), The Preponderance of Egoism, p. 122

Universe

“Inventions are a blessing. They tame the wild tendencies of the inanimate and train them to do human bidding. They save human bodies hard and laborious exertions by becoming their obsequious aids. But they are not invariable and universal blessings. The sad and peculiar conditions prevailing in human industry cause inventions to be to many human beings a catastrophe and a dread. To those who are able to own them and have lands on which to operate them they are blessings. But to the great disinherited class, who have nothing on earth but their hands, inventions are a disadvantage and an evil.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), The Problem of Industry, pp. 40–41

Universe , Training , Evil

“I am a vegetarian, therefore, because cannibalism is unnecessarily. I can live just as well and be just as happy without drinking the blood of my fellows and why should I slay them? Why should I not live and let live—especially when I can do it just as well as not? It is not necessary that ten thousand creatures should give up their lives in order that I may keep mine, and if I make any pretensions to morality why should I require them to do it? If you say such a thing is necessary in your case, I say to you it is not—and further, that if it were, it would be your duty as an ethical being to call on your undertaker. There is no sense in carnivora talking about ethics and justice and mercy, for their very existence is a travesty on such things. It makes me indignant and sad when I hear men deplore sin and prate about justice and love and mercy when the very energy they expend in preaching justice and mercy is obtained from the skeletons and sensibilities of their fellows. It is a spectacle that ought to make the imps of netherdom tremble for their laurels—man, the remorseless glutton, going about with a tongue and a knife, with his tongue preaching peace, mercy, and love, and with his knife making the very earth sodden with blood.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: Why I Am a Vegetarian: An Address Delivered before the Chicago Vegetarian Society (1895), pp. 39–40

Peace , Drink , Justice , Sense

“Urbanized men and women experience not life but the abstraction of life, on ever higher levels of refinement and dislocation from reality. They become processors of ideas, and have evolved such esoteric occupations as the critic, the critic who criticizes criticism, and even the critic who criticizes criticism of criticism. It is a very sad misuse of human talent and energy.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Book of Dreams (1981), Chapter 7 (p. 264)

Reality , Idea , Life , Women

“Humanity many times has had sad experience of superpowerful police forces…As soon as (the police) slip out from under the firm thumb of a suspicious local tribune, they become arbitrary, merciless, a law unto themselves. They think no more of justice, but only of establishing themselves as a privileged and envied elite. They mistake the attitude of natural caution and uncertainty of the civilian population as admiration and respect, and presently they start to swagger back and forth, jingling their weapons in megalomaniac euphoria. People thereupon become not masters, but servants. Such a police force becomes merely an aggregate of uniformed criminals, the more baneful in that their position is unchallenged and sanctioned by law. The police mentality cannot regard a human being in terms other than as an item or object to be processed as expeditiously as possible. Public convenience or dignity means nothing; police prerogatives assume the status of divine law. Submissiveness is demanded. If a police officer kills a civilian, it is a regrettable circumstance: the officer was possibly overzealous. If a civilian kills a police officer all hell breaks loose. The police foam at the mouth. All other business comes to a standstill until the perpetrator of this most dastardly act is found out. Inevitably, when apprehended, he is beaten or otherwise tortured for his intolerable presumption. The police complain that they cannot function efficiently, that criminals escape them. Better a hundred unchecked criminals than the despotism of one unbridled police force.”

Jack Vance Demon Princes

Source: Demon Princes (1964-1981), The Star King (1964), Chapter 3 (pp. 32-33)

Hell , Time , Justice , Law

“My fellow Americans, this day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our country. At 9:00 a. m. this morning, Mission Control in Houston lost contact with our Space Shuttle Columbia.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

A short time later, debris was seen falling from the skies above Texas. The Columbia is lost; there are no survivors.
2000s, 2003, Remarks after Columbia space shuttle disaster (February 2003)

Country

“I feel just as much compulsion to be an architect, for example, as I do a musician. And I feel inestimably guilty that I cannot fulfil the vocation for which I was trained - that of an economist specialising in problems of underdevelopment. My sadness stems from the fact that I do not have several lifetimes to lead.”

Graeme Revell (1955) New Zealand musician

Unsettling The Score: Graeme Revell, from SPK to Hollywood https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/unsettling-the-score-graeme-revell-from-spk-to-hollywood (March 2, 2014)

Training , Problem , Feeling

“Here’s my attitude, and I’m sort of sorry to say this sometimes – but there are people who try and elevate film music - of all kinds – to being the great twentieth century classical music, and my opinion is it just isn’t. It’s very straightforward, major/minor or modal writing. The only time you get any kind of originality is usually in the timbres and the sounds and the mixture of elements. But to get through a scene it’s either happy, or sad – and it’s either going forward in action or it’s not – and it can be ironic, which means you’ve got to switch from major to minor frequently. But it’s not rocket science. It’s a lot of skills – a lot of political skills, frankly. It’s being in a room and playing off fifty opinions from studios, producers, directors, sometimes actors – and coming out the end with something that vaguely represents music. And frequently it doesn’t. The minute you try to get original or break the box – unless you’ve got either a very experimental or powerful director, it’s probably not going to happen.”

Graeme Revell (1955) New Zealand musician

Time , Box , People , Music

“In my own world, sir, sad to say, human prejudice is matched only by human folly. Not a soul claims to be prejudiced, of course, as there are few who would describe themselves as fools…”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

Elric, chewing on a piece of barely palatable salt beef, remarked that this seemed a quality of a good deal of society, throughout the multiverse.
Book 2, Chapter 4 “Land at Last!” (p. 241)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)

World , Fools , Soul

“It’s pretty sad that people think low Congressional staff pay is a good thing. Low pay a big reason why money in politics is a problem - you can make a lot more money becoming a lobbyist & setting up a relationship w/ one, since the actual job doesn’t pay enough.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

Twitter Quotes (2019), February 2019

Money , People , Problem , Thinking

“As far as possible i stay away from sadness, I seek to live felicity and happily because life is short, and does not deserve to grieve or regret something.”

Pascale Machaalani (1969) Lebanese singer

lahamag.com,8 August 2019 https://www.lahamag.com/article/135433-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A3%D8%B5%D8%A8%D8%AD%D8%AA-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D8%AE%D8%B7%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%AB%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%88%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%B4%D9%88%D9%88-%D9%84%D8%A7-%D9%8A%D8%B2%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%B3

Life

“The ingredients are always the same: from the very beginnings, the Guess women have always been feminine, sensual, self-confident, independent, free and happy. This image is very far from that of traditional models, often too skinny and sad. Our campaigns express an intense yet smiling seduction, strongly different from the vulgarity dominating today’s world.”

Paul Marciano (1952) American fashion designer

Interview with Paul Marciano for Grazia magazine, May 25 2017 https://guessjournal.com/interviews/interview-paul-marciano/

Confidence , Smile , Self-confidence , World

“I appeal to the English-speaking people of South Africa not to allow themselves to be hurt, though I can feel their sadness. A framework has fallen away, but what is of greater importance is friendship and getting together as one nation – as white people who have to defend their future together. Now there is a chance of standing together – one free country standing together on a basis which is the desire of friendship with Great Britain.”

Hendrik Verwoerd (1901–1966) Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966

In response to a comment by Douglas Mitchell (leader of the opposition) that South Africa was retreating into isolation, as quoted in The New Republic https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rRI1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=wqULAAAAIBAJ&pg=5390%2C4506760, Glasgow Herald (30 May 1961)

Hurt , Chance , Friendship , Country

“Our folks understood that there was a war upon us and that school was a weapon that outdid any Glock. Yet the whole process—with its equally spaced desks, precisely timed periods and lectures, with its standardized pencils and tests—felt unnatural to me. But much as I hated their terms, having been impressed into them, I hated more the failing. So I was left with a great unconscious sadness, an emptiness which, even when I was alone, I was not fully aware. But it worked on me like an invisible weight, altered my laughter, posture, my approach to girls. Fuck what you have heard or what you have seen in your son. He may lie about homework and laugh when the teacher calls home. He may curse his teacher, propose arson for the whole public system. But inside is the same sense that was in me. None of us ever want to fail. None of us want to be unworthy, to not measure up.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates (1975) writer, journalist, and educator

Source: The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir (2008), p. 169-170.

School , Home , Time , Hate

“I always said that the decision to retire would be his alone but now that decision has been taken I feel a sense of sadness. We have lived through some unforgettable times together, some good and some bad, achieving results that will be hard to equal.”

Michael Schumacher (1969) German racing driver

Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari president, cited in: Planet-F1 (2006) "Todt and Montezemolo hail 'legend' Schumi". on Planet-F1. September 12, 2006 (no longer online)

Time , Bad luck , Decision , Sense

“His love of creating, the joy he took in it whether it was drama or comedy or his music, was inspiring to grow up around. The spirit he created on the set of The Andy Griffith Show was joyful and professional all at once. It was an amazing environment. And I think it was a reflection of the way he felt about having the opportunity to create something that people could enjoy. It was always with respect and passion for the opportunity and really what it could offer people in a very unpretentious and earthy way. He felt he was always working in service of an audience he really respected and cared about. He was a great influence on me. His passing is sad. But he lived a great rich life.”

Andy Griffith (1926–2012) American actor, television producer, Southern-gospel singer, and writer

Ron Howard, Nikki Finke, Editor in Chief. "EXCLUSIVE: Ron Howard On Andy Griffith". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2014-04-16.

Making love , People , Music , Joy

“Such was the sad end of Domingos Corea, Edirimana Suriya Bandara, the greatest Sinhalese of his day.”

Dominicus Corea (1565–1596) King of Kotte and Sitawaka

Edirille Bandara (Domingos Corea) By John M. Senaveratna (1937)

“I just can’t wrap my head around it – I don’t want to believe it’s real – and nothing I can say will serve his memory any justice right now. I’m just f-ng sad sad.”

Adam Goldstein (1973–2009) American DJ

Samantha Ronson, club DJ DJ AM’s Friends Pay Tribute http://www.showbizspy.com/article/191155/dj-ams-friends-pay-tribute.html.

Memory , Justice

“It would be a sad thing for an artist if he knew how to paint.”

Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) Armenian-American painter

so sad. An artist paints because it is a challenge to him – it is like trying to twist the devil. If you overcome it, there is no sport left. I don't even like to talk about painting. It is impossible to talk about painting because I don't know what it is. If I knew what it was I would get out a patent and then no one else would be able to paint.
1942 - 1948, A Painter in a Glass House' (1948)

Painting

“That was funny, yet sad. Kind of like getting tit-fucked by a clown.”

Dave Attell (1965) comedian

"Captain Miserable"

“His death has deprived us of a great champion - one that I loved very much. My past is scarred with grief; parents, brother, son. My life is full of sad memories. I look back and see the faces of my loved ones, and among them I see him.”

Gilles Villeneuve (1950–1982) Canadian racecar driver

Enzo Ferrari - Donaldson, pg. 322

Making love , Past , Parent , Memory

“There are moments of sentimental and mystical experience... that carry an enormous sense of inner authority and illumination with them when they come. But they come seldom, and they do not come to everyone; and the rest of life makes either no connection with them, or tends to contradict them more than it confirms them. Some persons follow more the voice of the moment in these cases, some prefer to be guided by the average results. Hence the sad discordancy of so many of the spiritual judgments of human beings; a discordancy which will be brought home to us acutely enough before these lectures end.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Lecture I, "Religion and Neurology"
1900s, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)

Home , Personality , Sense , Life

“Can it be doubtful that this is still the rule of human education; that the human creature needs first of all to be educated not that he may speak, but that he may have something weighty and valuable to say! If speech is the bank-note of an inward capital of culture, of insight and noble human worth, then speech is precious, and the art of speech shall be honored. But if there is no inward capital; if speech represent no real culture of the mind, but an imaginary culture; no bullion, but the fatal and now almost hopeless deficit of such? Alas, alas, said bank-note is then a forged one; passing freely current in the market; but bringing damages to the receiver, to the payer, and to all the world, which are in sad truth infallible, and of amount incalculable.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), Stump Orator (May 1, 1850)

Art , Truth , World , Education

“This is a reflection sad but important to the modern Governments now fallen anarchic, That they had not spiritual talent enough. And if this is so, then surely the question, How these Governments came to sink for want of intellect? is a rather interesting one. Intellect, in some measure, is born into every Century; and the Nineteenth flatters itself that it is rather distinguished that way!”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), The New Downing Street (April 15, 1850)

Way , Question

“Captain Saunders, who came from Dallas and had no intention of being impressed by any prince, found himself unexpectedly moved by the wide, sad eyes. There were eyes that had seen too many receptions and parades, that had had to watch countless totally uninteresting things, that had never been allowed to stray far from the carefully planned official routes. Looking at that proud but weary face, Captain Saunders glimpsed for the first time the ultimate loneliness of royalty.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Patent Pending

Patent Pending, p. 508
2000s and posthumous publications, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)

Loneliness , Time

“I can tell Albanians in Kosovo that in Serbia, no one had trouble living for not being Serbian. Serbia has always been opened for all, and for those who had no other place to go—and for those who had no other place to go, for the poor and rich, for those who are happy and sad, and for those who are only passing through, and for those who wish to stay. Serbia only doesn’t want evil people, even if they be Serbian.”

Slobodan Milošević (1941–2006) Yugoslavian and Serbian politician

Slobodan Milošević (1988), Слободан Милошевић Ушће https://www.youtube.com/embed/iyj4l3cH2Pc

People , Evil , Happiness

“That time is past,
And all its aching joys are now no more,
And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this
Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur, other gifts
Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,
Abundant recompence. For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear,—both what they half create,
And what perceive; well pleased to recognise
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.”

William Wordsworth book Lyrical Ballads

Stanza 3
Lyrical Ballads (1798–1800), Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey (1798)

Loss , Soul , Time , Sun

“And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,
With many recognitions dim and faint,
And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
The picture of the mind revives again:
While here I stand, not only with the sense
Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years. And so I dare to hope,
Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first
I came among these hills;”

William Wordsworth book Lyrical Ballads

Stanza 3
Lyrical Ballads (1798–1800), Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey (1798)

Food , Future , Hope , Pleasure

“I felt a terrible sadness open inside me, a void through which the winds from the end of the universe were blowing.”

Alastair Reynolds book House of Suns

Source: House of Suns (2008), Chapter 19 (p. 307)

Universe

“You know the sad thing is, most people are subliminally coerced into being so many things other than themselves. It sort of has the effect of carbon monoxide. You can’t see it, smell it, it’s completely undetectable until you’re visibly affected. I believe a lot of mental health issues arises from this. We are subconsciously being forced into a uniformed lifestyle when it’s not our nature. And they’ll have us believe that we’re insane when everything in our being fights for its freedom. I will forever remain an eleutheromaniac! So I guess I will forever remain strange or imbalanced or mentally disturbed, because I am mentally disturbed by these conditions and I will never stop fighting for my freedom-mind, body and spirit. If insanity is, in fact, repeating the same things over and over expecting different results, then what does that say about your routined life?”

Scarlet Jei Saoirse (1984) American singer and actress

Freedom , People , Health , Nature

“Yes, I do love you, I have all the love in the world left for you, only that love seems so far away from me and so strange too, for it is as though I could almost hear it, a droning or weeping, but far, far away, and a sad lost sound, it might be either approaching or receding, I can’t tell which.”

Malcolm Lowry book Under the Volcano

Source: Under the Volcano (1947), Ch. VII (*p. 200)

World , Making love , Love

“Destiny connects us all like a thread and that’s how people meet.
Sadness, bliss, separation and reunion are nothing but a natural phenomenon.
As for those uncontrollable, we can only let nature take its course.”

Deng Feng-Zhou (1949) Chinese poet, Local history writer, Taoist Neidan academics and Environmentalist.

(zh-TW) 勢運天成一線牽，人生際遇係因緣；
悲歡散合平常待，事起非能任自旋。

"Destiny" (隨緣)

Source: Deng Feng-Zhou, "Deng Feng-Zhou Classical Chinese Poetry Anthology". Volume 6, Tainan, 2018: 86.

People , Nature

“People are conditioned to seeing Latinos in a certain light including our own people, and that's a problem. Kids need to see something that they can aspire to…Hollywood doesn't always go to Latinos for heroes and it’s sad because we have them…We don't see our people save the day.”

Esai Morales (1962) American actor

On Hollywood’s portrayal of Latinos in “Esai Morales On Latinos, Hollywood and Trump” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/esai-morales-latinos-hollywood-trump-n426866 in NBC News (2015 Sep 17)

Light , Problem , People

“When you lose someone or something that you care about and as a result you feel sad or anxious or powerless, it isn't dysfunctional or pathological, it's normal.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Feeling

“Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land,Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.”

Matthew Arnold Dover Beach

St. 1
Dover Beach (1867)

Sea , Drawing

“I've been sad, I've been lost
I've been down and out and lonely
I've been suffering at a job
In a world that tries to own me
But when I wake up every morning
There's an image of a better place
'Cause the harder that we grind
Then the sweeter is the glory”

Aloe Blacc (1979) American soul singer, rapper and musician

Source: Song My Way

World , Suffering

“The border still doesn't make much sense in my mind. It's a place that has so many things going on, a lot of sad stories, a lot of positive ones, a lot of people who are looking to break the rules and I identify a lot with that. I like to break the rules.”

Lila Downs (1968) Mexican American singer-songwriter

On how the border between the U.S. and Mexico influenced her work in “Mex factor” https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/feb/10/artsfeatures.popandrock in The Guardian (2003 Feb 10)
Heritage and indigenous peoples

Sense , Making love , People

“It is very sad, but I'm afraid America is bound to forge ahead and nothing can restore the equality between us. If we had interfered in the Confederate War it was then possible for us to reduce the power of the United States to manageable proportions. But two such chances are not given to a nation in the course of its career.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Letter to Lord Selborne after J.P. Morgan acquired a predominating influence in Cunard, White Star and other shipping lines (13 March 1902)
Source: Quoted in Andrew Roberts, Lord Salisbury: Victorian Titan (1999), p. 50 and David Steele, 'The Place of Germany in Salisbury's Foreign Policy, 1878-1902', in Adolf M. Birke, Magnus Brechtken and Alaric Searle (eds.), An Anglo-German Dialogue: The Munich Lectures on the History of International Relations (2000), p. 67

War , Chance

“Difficult or sad events belong to every being. Whenever it happens to have, it must seriously think if that situation is really worth getting a smile. Who has and knows how to give smile, is the master of the whole world.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Eventi duri, difficili o tristi appartengono ad ogni essere. Ogniqualvolta dovesse capitare di averne, bisogna seriamente pensare se per quella situazione valga davvero la pena farsi togliere il sorriso. Chi ha e sa donare sorriso, è padrone del mondo intero.
Source: prevale.net

World , Smile , Thinking

“Music is the ideal companion in sad, difficult or joyful moments. The divine substance that creates emotions.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La musica è la compagna ideale nei momenti tristi, difficili o di gioia. La divina sostanza che crea emozione in ogni situazione.
Source: prevale.net

Music

“When one sees, the variety and abundance of beautiful and bloodless fruits that gorge the markets of civilisation and considers the amount of art available for cooking and compounding this abundance, and considers, too, what might be still further accomplished in the production and preparation of foods by scientific attention to the matter, it seems so strange, so sad, and so frightful, that man, elected by the accidents of evolution to be the model and schoolmaster of the world, and adapted so signally to a guiltless diet, should continue to perpetrate in the daylight of the twentieth century the barbarous, blood-sucking atrocities of the reptile.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: The New Ethics (1907), Is Man a Plant-Eater?, p. 130

Food , Beauty , Art , World

“Dust to dust by the broken dreams of the humanity,
you ain't got a lot to say, the words are sad,
now, our companion, the pains of the heart
The indifference kills with no shame or concern, killing me,
killing you, watch the end of the blessing, for the blind in the heart war has taken its tax. He has wrapped us in black wings
and one day, the sun stopped, the rain stopped falling,
the flowers didn't look high,
the sky emptied of stars
then a tear dripped from the heart and became our breath
we need a sacred tear,
before the fall.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: https://allpoetry.com/alexis_karpouzos

Star , Flowers , Indifference , Tear

“No enjoyment on this sad old earth has come even close to the unending pleasures that God has prepared 'for those that love Him.”

Ray Comfort (1949) New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist

This is the teaching of the Bible. And you are going to miss out, simply because you refuse to change your mind, repent, and trust the Saviour.
You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think (2009)

God , Pleasure , Love

“One of the ironies in social climbing is that if you are successful, your children will ultimately belong to a different class from yours. There is something sad in that this was your ambition, yet if you achieve it, you have in a sense alienated yourself from your own children.”

Julian Fellowes (1949) English actor, dramatist, director, novelist, producer and screenwriter

Q&A with Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes https://britishheritage.com/interviews/downton-abbey-julian-fellowes (July 22, 2021)

Success , Children , Sense

“The experience of a sad and tender heart is what gives birth to fearlessness.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind (2008)

Birth , Heart

“You are like a star who's twinkling all the time at the night. When you light up yourself it show your happiness and when you're not it's look like you're sad. It's depends on you want to want be in your life glowing star who's spread happiness or dim star who's spread sadness. If i were a star I'll spreads happiness all around and when someone had a wish to me I'll fall down for their wish come true.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Dependency , Light , Star , Happiness

“When men feel happy, they think of men who love; when they feel sad they think and pray to God.”

Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet

Gli uomini quando si sentono felici pensano agli uomini che amano, quando si sentono tristi pensano e pregano Dio.

God , Happiness , Thinking , Love

“My belief is that, the mystics will never be happy nor sad because I took their side. Indeed, this is the right path that does not allow any type of fanaticism to penetrate the mind. In my noble opinion, these are the wisest human beings ever to exist.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Happiness

“We should not suppress our feelings of sadness during our activism. Being upfront with these emotions shows our humanity and gives validation to others feeling the same way.”

Glacier Kwong (1996) Hong Kong human rights activist

What Could Possibly Go Right?: Episode 38 Glacier Kwong https://www.resilience.org/stories/2021-05-04/what-could-possibly-go-right-episode-38/ (4 May 2021)

Feeling , Way

“Closing the parish is the last thing I want to do, it's sad. I would rather be opening a parish.”

John Bura (1944–2023) Ukrainian Catholic bishop in the United States

Closing marks slow decline of PA. Ukrainian church https://www.wtae.com/article/closing-marks-slow-decline-of-pa-ukrainian-church/7463555 (October 28, 2013)

“As men, you stand at the center of the universe. You spout pearls of wisdom that shape the future of the world. So when your female friend comes to you, you might wonder: ‘Is she hoping to share her sadness with me? No, she must be hoping to learn something from me!’”

Yang Li (1992) Chinese stand-up comedian

Source: "The ‘Punchline Queens’ Ripping Into Chinese Comedy’s Boys’ Club" in Sixth Tone https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1006067/the-punchline-queens-ripping-into-chinese-comedys-boys-club (21 August 2020)

Learning , Universe , World , Future

“A warrior is someone who seeks freedom. Sadness is not freedom. We must snap out of it. Having a sense of detachment entails having a moment's pause to reassess situations.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Source: The Eagle's Gift, (1981)

Freedom , Sense

“Don't promise when you're happy, Don't reply when you're angry and don't decide when you're sad.”

Ziad K Abdelnour (1960) Lebanese-born American investment banker, financier, activist and author

Source: Economic Warfare Quotes

Happiness

“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours. I'm fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred”

Halyna Hutchins (1979–2021) Ukrainian-American cinematographer and investigative journalist

Source: 22 October 2021 https://twitter.com/AlecBaldwin/status/1451572461787439106 by Alec Baldwin the day after Alec killed her with a firearm

Life

“Fear of suffering is a great obstacle to being a happy person in life. God wants us to be happy. Asceticism is not supposed to make us sad. It’s supposed to free us to be able to understand and do what God wants. He wants our happiness. He wants us to bring happiness to others.”

Alfred Clifton Hughes (1932) Roman Catholic archbishop

Source: 60 Years A Priest: An Interview with Archbishop Alfred Hughes https://nds.edu/blog-entry/60-years-a-priest-an-interview-with-archbishop-alfred-hughes/

God , Personality , Happiness , Suffering

“It’s a sad fact of modern life that if you drive long enough, sooner or later you must leave London behind.”

Ben Aaronovitch book Moon Over Soho

Source: Moon Over Soho (2011), Chapter 1, “Body and Soul” (p. 1)

Life

“I look into the faces of the people passing by,
The glad ones and the sad ones, and the lined with misery,
And I wonder why the sorrow or the twinkle in the eye;
But the pale and weary faces are the ones that trouble me.”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Source: The Path to Home (1919), p.22 - Faces, stanza 1.

People

“I feel so sad. We begged you to stop amplifying and normalising hatred and racism. But you told us we were 'politically correct' and 'freedom of speech' was more important. The more you gave the far-right a platform, the more powerful they got. We begged you.”

Osman Faruqi pakistan-born Australian political journalist

Source: 14 March 2019 https://twitter.com/oz_f/status/1106419337567428608

Freedom , Feeling

“Animals who die for your dinner table die alone, in terror, in sadness and in pain. The killing is merciless and inhumane. … Animals suffer from pain and fear just as much as you do. Most spend their last hours locked in a truck, packed into a cage with hundreds of other terrified animals and then cruelly pushed into a blood soaked death chamber. Animals which are a year old are often far more rational – and capable of logical thought – than six-week-old babies. Pigs and sheep are far more intelligent than small children.”

Vernon Coleman (1946) British doctor

"Twenty One Reasons For Being A Vegetarian" (2007), in vernoncoleman.com http://www.vernoncoleman.com/twentyoner.htm.

Baby , Intelligence , Death , Pain

“Upbeat tunes make us want to dance around our kitchens and invite friends for dinner. But it's sad music that makes us want to touch the sky.”

Susan Cain book Bittersweet

Bittersweet, Chapter 2 at p. 36

Music , Dance

“I carry a deep sadness of the heart which must now and then break out in sound.”

Franz Liszt (1811–1886) Hungarian romantic composer and virtuoso pianist

As quoted in Walker, 1997.

Heart

“It is sad for us to report this, but the clock has been turned back and California agriculture, with the exception of a handful of contracts that we still hold, we now have the labor contractor, the crew leader system back again, we now have child labor back again.”

Dolores Huerta (1930) American labor leader

1974 speech, in Voices of Multicultural America: Notable Speeches Delivered by African, Asian, Hispanic and Native Americans, 1790-1995 by Deborah Gillan Straub