Sadness usually results from one of the following causes either when a man does not succeed, or is ashamed of his success
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Smile
Smile, even if it is a sad smile,
Because sadder than a sad smile
Is the sadness of not knowing how to smile.
—Unknown
Not only is there a right to be happy, there is a duty to be happy. So much sadness exists in the world that we are all under obligation to contribute as much joy as lies within our powers.
—John Sutherland Bonnell (1893–1992) American Preacher
Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. Yes, yes, it’s the most comical thing in the world.
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) Irish Novelist, Playwright
Some say that happiness is not good for mortals, and they ought to be answered that sorrow is not fit for immortals and is utterly useless to any one; a blight never does good to a tree, and if a blight kill not a tree but it still bear fruit, let none say that the fruit was in consequence of the blight.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Much like the hands of a clock go nowhere fast, anxious thoughts run us round-and-round without taking us anywhere!
—Guy Finley
He whose days in wilful woe are worn, the grace of his Creator doth despise, that will not use his gifts for thankless niggardise.
—Edmund Spenser (1552–99) English Poet
Sadness is always the legacy of the past; regrets are pains of the memory.
—Unknown
For the first time in my life a feeling of overpowering stinging melancholy seized me. Before, I had never experienced aught but a not unpleasing sadness. The bond of a common humanity now drew me irresistibly to gloom. A fraternal melancholy! For both I and Bartleby were sons of Adam. I remembered the bright silks and sparkling faces I had seen that day, in gala trim, swanlike sailing down the Mississippi of Broadway; and I contrasted them with the pallid copyist, and thought to myself, 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 (1819–91) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist, Poet
Pain and fear and hunger are effects of causes which can be foreseen and known: but sorrow is a debt which someone else makes for us.
—Freya Stark (1893–1993) British Explorer, Writer
Sorrow makes us children again.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow; but there is something in it so like virtue, that he who is wholly without it cannot be loved.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Let no one till his death
Be called unhappy. Measure not the work
Until the day’s out and the labor done:
Then bring your gauges.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
How else but through a broken heart may Lord Christ enter in?
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
The lives of happy people are dense with their own doings—crowded, active, thick. But the sorrowing are nomads, on a plain with few landmarks and no boundaries; sorrow’s horizons are vague and its demands are few.
—Larry McMurtry (1936–2021) American Novelist, Screenwriter
Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Sorrow is one of the vibrations that prove the fact of living.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
The word “happiness” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, great as each may be, their highest comfort given to the sorrowful is a cordial introduction into another’s woe. Sorrow’s the great community in which all men born of woman are members at one time or another.
—Sean O’Casey (1880–1964) Irish Dramatist, Memoirist
Sorrows cannot all be explained away in a life truly lived, grief and loss accumulate like possessions.
—Stefan Kanfer (1933–2018) American Journalist, Contributing Editor, Critic, Author
Had we never lov’d sae kindly, Had we never lov’d sae blindly, Never met—or never parted—we had never been broken-hearted.
—Robert Burns (1759–96) Scottish Poet, Songwriter
Sadness flies away on the wings of time.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
For us there is only one season, the season of sorrow. The very sun and moon seem taken from us. Outside, the day may be blue and gold, but the light that creeps down through the thickly-muffled glass of the small iron-barred window beneath which one sits is grey and niggard. It is always twilight in one’s cell, as it is always twilight in one’s heart. And in the sphere of thought, no less than in the sphere of time, motion is no more.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Silence is medication for sorrow.
—Arabic Proverb
It is a time when one’s spirit is subdued and sad, one knows not why; when the past seems a storm-swept desolation, life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Weep no more, nor sigh, nor groan,
Sorrow calls no time that ‘s gone;
Violets plucked, the sweetest rain
Makes not fresh nor grow again.
—John Fletcher (1579–1625) English Playwright
Leave a Reply