Desperation Quotes

“And though this story does have its monsters, I’ve found that it is not one that can be so easily cleaved into the good and the bad. In the end, this was a story about people and their different shades of desperation, crashing up against each other. But there was one person who was good until the very end. And his name was Sal Singh.”
― Holly Jackson, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

“There was something devastating about being handled gently by a cruel man. Maybe because it felt so intentional, so excruciatingly deliberate.”
― Nenia Campbell, Batter My Heart

“Desperation often distorts our vision.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Under all his cowardice there was a courage of cowardice [...] that would impel him to do the very thing his whole nature protested against doing and was afraid of doing.”
― Jack London, The Sea Wolf

“Desperate feelings can swivel into loathing.”
― Suzette Mayr, The Sleeping Car Porter

“Revolutions begin this way, with men willing to fight no matter what the odds, volunteering to give up everything because they had nothing.”
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer

“I want him. Desperately. Even I simultaneously know that a lot of things I might want in life are not good choices.”
― Sophie Kinsella, The Party Crasher

“I dreamed of shadows that night, vast shadows that blotted out the sun, and I called out to them in my desperation, but they did not listen.”
― Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders

“I wondered if God found people like me annoying, those who turned to prayer only when they were neck-deep, that terrible friend we've all had.”
― Laura van den Berg, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories

“He could very well fire on you the minute you're in the door." Roarke spoke softly as she waited for the MTs to prepare the medications and pressure syringes.
"He could."
"But you go in without a vest, without a weapon."
"That was the deal. I know what I'm doing."

"You know what you have to do. There's a subtle and dangerous difference. Eve." He laid a hand on her arm. It took everything inside him not to yank her clear of the room. Get her away. "I know what he means to you. Remember what you mean to me."

"I'm not likely to forget it.”
― J.D. Robb, Purity in Death

“Such men as M. de Talleyrand are like sharp-edged instruments with which it is dangerous to play. But for great evils drastic remedies are necessary and whoever has to treat them should not be afraid to use the instrument which cuts the best.”
― Klemens von Metternich

“Please,' I say to the dirt floor of the brugh, to the earth itself. 'I will do whatever you want. I will give up the crown. I will make any bargain. Just please fix him. Help me break the curse.'

I concentrate and concentrate, but the magic doesn't come.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“I couldn't. I couldn't do it. It wasn't like hunting; it wasn't for survival or defence. It was cold-blooded murder- the murder of them, of my very soul. But for Prythian- for Tamlin, for all of them here, for Alis and her boys... I wished I knew the name of one of our forgotten gods so that I might beg them to intercede, wished I knew any prayers at all for guidance, for absolution.

But I did not know those prayers, or the names of our forgotten gods- only the names of those who would remain enslaved if I did not act. I silently recited those names, even as the horror of what knelt before me began to swallow me whole. For Prythian, for Tamlin, for their world and my own... These deaths would not be wasted- even if it would damn me forever.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“And I saw how I would spend the next few days in solitude, with nothing to do and only my own, horrible thoughts for company. I began speaking before I could reconsider. 'Take me with you.'

Rhys halted as he pushed through two purple gossamer curtains. And slowly, he turned back. 'You should rest.'

'I've rested enough,' I said, setting down the empty mug and standing. My head spun slightly. When had I last eaten? 'Wherever you're going, whatever you're doing- take me along. I'll stay out of trouble. Just... Please.' I hated the last word, choked on it. It had done nothing to sway Tamlin.

For a long moment, Rhys said nothing. Then he prowled toward me, his long stride eating up the distance and his face set like stone. 'If you come with me, there is no going back. You will not be allowed to speak of what you see to anyone outside of my court. Because if you do, people will die- my people will die. So if you come, you will have to lie about it forever; if you return to the Spring Court, you cannot tell anyone there what you see, and who you meet, and what you will witness. If you would rather not have that between you and- your friends, then stay here.'

Stay here, stay locked up in the Spring Court... My chest was a gaping, open wound. I wondered if I'd bleed out from it- if a spirit could bleed out and die. Maybe that had already happened. 'Take me with you,' I breathed. 'I won't tell anyone what I see. Even- them.' I couldn't bear to say his name.

Rhys studied me for a few heartbeats. And finally he gave me a half smile. 'We leave in ten minutes. If you want to freshen up, go ahead.'

An unusually polite reminder that I probably looked like the dead. I felt like it. But I said, 'Where are we going?'

Rhys's smile widened into a grin. 'To Velaris- the City of Starlight.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury

“The candle burns at both ends, they witness both its splendor and inexplicable deeds, often prodding at one another.”
― Trent Lindsey, Those Wyrd and Wonderful

“At times we may feel that the tree is certain to topple, but I can rest assured that the roots of my belief will never be ripped out by the winds of desperation.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“To say please, and mean it, is to believe that life itself can be persuaded in your favor.”
― Aliya Whiteley, Peace, Pipe

“My tears form puddles of torment.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Words uttered in desperation have a sell by date.”
― Goitsemang Mvula

“Prayer is not an act of desperation. Rather, it is an act that acknowledges all other acts as desperate.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Those that God will use for revival in our time are vessels who have intensified desperation that cannot hold back. They are simply ordinary people whose bones have been burning with an internal holy fire.”
― Benjamin Suulola

“God’s power to carry out divine mandate does not come to those who are in wishes party. It comes to those who are desperately longing for God’s intervention in the affairs of their generation.”
― Benjamin Suulola

“Desperation repels, gratitude attracts.”
― Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth

“Catherine glanced at the filth-ridden boy who wore the same scent as she. It was the scent of pure desperation mixed with a bit of dirt and some tears. She knew this scent, and she knew it well, perhaps too well.”
― Marilyn Velez, Tundra: A Wanderer's Tale into Darkness

“Desperation brings out the worst of us. The darkest parts of us come out to play when our lives are at stake.”
― Krystalle Bianca, Perfectly Entwined

“Fear, combined with a touch of desperation, makes you much more open to buying into otherwise crazy practices.”
― C J Cooke

“No one wakes up and says they want to be a gangbanger or a drug dealer- that's the last stop on the train. That what you do when you're drowning and reaching out for something- anything- to survive. By the time they get to the corner, there has been a series of things that led to that decision. No one wakes up at the top of the mountain and decides they would like it better down there on the bottom. They end up there out of desperation. We don't spend enough time examining the wider picture, the steps that get them there. We don't tell that part of the story. And to tell half the story is to spread a lie.”
― Michael K. Williams, Scenes from My Life: A Memoir

“She thought of the animals at the Zoo. She and Bub had gone there one Sunday afternoon. They arrived in time to see the lions and tigers being fed. There was a moment, before the great hunks of red meat were thrust into the cages, when the big cats prowled back and forth, desperate, raging, ravening. They walked in a space even smaller than the confines of the cages made necessary, moving in an area just barely the length of their bodies. A few steps up and turn. A few steps down and turn. They were weaving back and forth, growling, roaring, raging at the bars that kept them from the meat, until the entire building was filled with the sound, until the people watching drew back from the cages, feeling insecure, frightened at the sight and the sound of such uncontrolled savagery. She was becoming something like that.”
― Ann Petry, The Street

“If you have not left your home in the middle of the night without even giving it a backward glance; if you have not left your cat and your friends and also a one-eyed dog named Buddy without getting to tell any of them good-bye; if you have not stood on the side of the road in Georgia, somewhere just past the irrevocable state line, and waited for someone to come along and give you a ride, well, then you cannot understand the desperation that was in my heart that day.”
― Kate DiCamillo, Louisiana's Way Home

“The feeling of desperation was fast becoming more like wishing to return to a book whose plot has just reached a climax when one is torn away by workday matters.”
― Liz Braswell, Unbirthday