“It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand. ~ Brian Stimpson, Clockwise”

—  John Cleese

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It's not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand. ~ Brian Stimpson, Clockwise" by John Cleese?
John Cleese photo
John Cleese 32
actor from England 1939

Related quotes

“It's not the despair, Laura, I can stand the despair. It's the hope.”

Michael Frayn (1933) British writer

Clockwise (1986), cited from Malcolm Page File on Frayn (London: Methuen, 1994) p. 65.

Shaun Chamberlin photo

“There’s a really interesting thing about despair, I think. It has a spark in it of deep motivation. I think despair can be described as looking at every possible scenario and seeing no hopeful one. But what that means is, if you can present someone in despair with one scenario that looks hopeful – that looks like a real possibility – then there’s this immense wealth of motivation to drive toward it, because despair is not a nice place to be.”

Shaun Chamberlin

Kosmos interview on grief, Dark Optimism, aliveness and activism (2014) http://www.darkoptimism.org/2014/12/21/dark-optimism-power-of-grief/#post-4075

Seneca the Younger photo

“Who can hope for nothing should despair of nothing.”

Seneca the Younger Medea

Original: (la) Qui nil potest sperare, desperate nihil.
Source: Tragedies, Medea (c. 50 CE), Line 163 (trans. A. J. Boyle)

“I hope that the kind reader recognises this as a despairing attempt at humour.”

Nancy Springer (1948) American author of fantasy, young adult literature, mystery, and science fiction
Seneca the Younger photo

“If you are wise, mingle these two elements: do not hope without despair, or despair without hope.”
Si sapis, alterum alteri misce: nec speraveris sine desperatione nec desperaveris sine spe.

Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist

Alternate translation: Hope not without despair, despair not without hope. (translated by Zachariah Rush).
Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter CIV: On Care of Health and Peace of Mind, Line 12

Miguel de Unamuno photo

“And the other Don Quixote remained here among us, fighting with desperation. And does he not fight out of despair? …But "despair is the master of possibilities," as we learn from Salazar y Torres (Elegir al enemigo, Act I.), and it is despair and despair alone that begets heroic hope, absurd hope, mad hope. Spero quia absurdum [I hope because it is absurd], it ought to have been said, rather than credo”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

Credo quia absurdam — I believe because it is absurd
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), Conclusion : Don Quixote in the Contemporary European Tragi-Comedy

George Bernard Shaw photo

“He who has never hoped can never despair”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
James Robinson Risner photo

“I never lost hope, and never did I despair of coming back alive.”

James Robinson Risner (1925–2013) Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

Source: "Nine Feet Tall" in Air Force Magazine https://www.airforcemag.com/article/0212tall/ (1 February 2012)

Joseph Conrad photo

“I can't tell if a straw ever saved a drowning man, but I know that a mere glance is enough to make despair pause. For in truth we who are creatures of impulse are not creatures of despair.”

Joseph Conrad book Chance

Chance (1913), part I, Ch. 6

Bernard Baruch photo

“The peace of the world is the hope and the goal of our political system; it is the despair and defeat of those who stand against us.”

Bernard Baruch (1870–1965) American businessman

Speech to the South Carolina Legislature, Columbia, SC (16 April 1947); Baruch said that the phrase "cold war" was suggested to him by H. B. Swope, editor of the New York World; the term had earlier been used by George Orwell (1945)
Context: Let us not be deceived — we are today in the midst of a cold war. Our enemies are to be found abroad and at home. Let us never forget this: Our unrest is the heart of their success. The peace of the world is the hope and the goal of our political system; it is the despair and defeat of those who stand against us.

Related topics