Anna Julia Cooper Quotes

Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.

I sometimes fall into the trap of doing what I think I should be doing rather than what I want to be doing.

Discontent arises from a knowledge of the possible, as contrasted with the actual

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation..

I wasn't playing at Arsenal, and I was frustrated. I was doing everything I could do, looking after myself, scoring, and playing in the Europa League then when the cup came, but it wasn't enough for me, and I wanted more.

I never got a lead role and I make no bones about it.

Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us.

Why is the place where I want to be so often so far from where I am?

You sensed that you should be following a different path, a more ambitious one, you felt that you were destined for other things but you had no idea how to achieve them and in your misery you began to hate everything around you.

The discontented believe that their regrets are about the past.

Expectation is the mother of all frustration.

My dad had a lot of bad luck. You could see his suffering, his terrible suffering, living a life that was disappointing and looking for another one.

I mean, I'm not unhappy, but there's still so much I want to do.

But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

I hated my work. It never seemed to me to be what I should be doing.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

I wasn't unhappy, but I was a little like: 'Is this it? Really?' I was thirsty.

Why go through life feeling cheated? It does nothing but make you bitter.

It is bitter to think of one's best years disappearing in this unpolished country.

The longing to produce great inspirations didn't produce anything but more longing.

I'm afraid I don't think I really have a life on which something can be written.

I think I've always had a disconnect from what I'm supposed to be like.

Vocations which we wanted to pursue, but didn't, bleed, like colors, on the whole of our existence.

High expectations produce high frustrations.