“It's not the despair, Laura, I can stand the despair. It's the hope.”
Clockwise (1986), cited from Malcolm Page File on Frayn (London: Methuen, 1994) p. 65.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Michael Frayn5
British writer 1933Related quotes
Kosmos interview on grief, Dark Optimism, aliveness and activism (2014) http://www.darkoptimism.org/2014/12/21/dark-optimism-power-of-grief/#post-4075
“Who can hope for nothing should despair of nothing.”
Original: (la) Qui nil potest sperare, desperate nihil.
Source: Tragedies, Medea (c. 50 CE), Line 163 (trans. A. J. Boyle)
“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
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.
“2542. Hope is as cheap as Despair.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
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
“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
“Despair exists only when there is hope.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher
11th Public Talk, London, UK (25 May 1961)
1960s