Judith Rossner Quotes

It takes far less courage to kill yourself than it takes to make yourself wake up one more time. It's harder to stay where you are than to get out. For everyone but you, that is.

I am of the opinion, and even more so the older I get, that it is more difficult to have hope than it is to despair. And I mean this in the sense that in order to have hope you must acknowledge the despair and then you have to get beyond it. Taken from a radio interview given on BBC Radio 4's Open Book

I think about giving up. I almost do.

It requires courage not to surrender oneself to the ingenious or compassionate counsels of despair that would induce a man to eliminate himself from the ranks of the living; but it does not follow from this that every huckster who is fattened and nourished in self-confidence has more courage than the man who yielded to despair.

We can feel sad, hurt, demoralized. But we can't give up.

There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.

There are seldom, if ever, any hopeless situations, but there are many people who lose hope in the face of some situations.

The soul does not give itself up to despair until it has exhausted all illusions.

NOT, I’ll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee; Not untwist—slack they may be—these last strands of man In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can; Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

When hope is gone, time is punishment.

To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word.

Dark clouds may hang on me sometimes, but I'll work it out.

My spirits rose as I went deeper; into the forest; but I could not regain my former elasticity of mind. I found cheerfulness to be like life itself - not to be created by any argument. Afterwards I learned, that the best way to manage some kinds of pain fill thoughts, is to dare them to do their worst; to let them lie and gnaw at your heart till they are tired; and you find you still have a residue of life they cannot kill. So, better and worse, I went on, till I came to a little clearing in the forest.

And remember: you must never, under any circumstances, despair. To hope and to act, these are our duties in misfortune.

Weave me a rope from this dark despair, from this dull-eyed pain... Weave me a rope from this endless night, from this distant shore... Weave me a rope that will pull me through these impossible times.

Life, that can shower you with so much splendour, is unremittingly cruel to those who have given up.

I surprise myself that I'm not dead in the gutter somewhere, surprised that I haven't given up.

I have my good and bad days, but when it's tough I just push through it.

My biggest success is getting over the things that have tried to destroy and take me out of this life. Those are my biggest successes. It has nothing to do with work.

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Every fighter has a story that could break your heart. We lose, we get hurt and everything comes apart. That's when it's so difficult to stay on the straight and narrow.

The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die.

Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.

I have always said about myself I am a survivor because I am.

Despair gives courage to a coward.