Ian Mcewan Quotes

Despair is the conclusion of fools.

It seems as if life and hope must cease together.

If it's just the same with you, Mr. President, I'd like to lie down and die.

Where no hope is left, is left no fear.

In this world, I've got no choice: there is nothing left at all; and you don't notice, but that's all right: you don't know what it's like.

Helplessness induces hopelessness, and history attests that loss of hope and not loss of lives is what decides the issue of war.

Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn't matter.

'Weary Willie' is very real to me. He is a man who has given up. The boat has gone and left him. The cards are stacked against him. He's content to make out with what he's got. He knows he'll go no further.

My sweetest hope is to lose hope.

I want you to take away the hope because that's the thing that's killing me.

I know I'm going to blow one day. My life is doomed the way it is. I have no future.

The Cardinal is at his wit's end - it is true that he had not far to go.

I am about to die, God calls me... I have scarcely strength enough to support the last days that remain of my miserable life... I see no salvation for the country. I believe everything is lost forever. If there were a single sacrifice I could make - my life, my happiness or my honour – believe me, I would not hesitate; but I am convinced the sacrifice would be useless. Since I am unable to secure the happiness of my country, I refuse to rule it. Further, the tyrants have taken my native land from me and therefore I have no longer any country for which to make a sacrifice

For a long time, I have hoped for better days, but alas, today it is necessary for me to lose all hope. My poor wife suffers more and more. I do not think it is possible to be any weaker.

Life and hope must cease together.

Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, roll darkly down the torrent of his fate.

The nice thing about true hopelessness is that you don't have to try again.

You should despair and run away.

I have few illusions: the cause is lost in advance. As for me, I do my part, which is to drag a fairly drab existence to its conclusion.

Come aboard if your destination is oblivion- it should be our next stop. We can sit together. You can have the window seat if you want. But it's a sad view.

Some people are beyond help, just accept that.

There's no saving me.

An Overall Feeling of Doom that One Cannot Ever Escape no Matter What One Does

At the depths of that dusty soul there is nothing but abject surrender.

The realization that I’d have nothing to take home had finally sunk in. My knees buckled and I slid down the tree trunk to its roots. It was too much. I was too sick and weak and tired, oh, so tired. Let them call the Peacekeepers and take us to the community home, I thought. Or better yet, let me die right here in the rain.