John Piper Quotes

I was quite depressed two weeks ago when I spent an afternoon at Brentano's Bookshop in New York and was looking at the kind of books most people read. That seems to be hopeless; once you see that you lose all hope.

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.

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

...the habit of despair is worse than despair itself.

There is prodigious strength in sorrow and despair.

I've had a lot of struggles with depression. It's very easy for me to go to a bleak place, or for me to doubt humanity, myself, the world, my choices.

I'm constantly having doubts and moments of depression and then excitement and then back into the slough of despond.

Some days I'm in better control and can navigate my way through stuff, and other days, not so much.

I really believe that all of us have a lot of darkness in our souls. Anger, rage, fear, sadness. I don't think that's only reserved for people who have horrible upbringings. I think it really exists and is part of the human condition. I think in the course of your life you figure out ways to deal with that.

I've definitely had times in my life where I've been depressed and not able to do anything at all.

I used to think drinking was the only way to be happy. Now I know there is no way to be happy.

People respond differently to people who are grieving. They reach out. But depression is so very isolating. It's hard to explain to anyone who has never been depressed how isolating it is. Grief comes and goes, but depression is unremitting.

I was copeless. Not just hopeless, but copeless. I tried to keep on working because I was ashamed of acknowledging the fact that I was depressed. You don't use that word.

I'm just sittin here trying not to be unhappy.

I found out that I couldn't have a nervous breakdown. I tried a couple of times, but it just didn't work out. My mind, my body wouldn't let me.

Yes, I suffer terribly from depression. I have to work at being happy, it's not my natural instinct. My natural instinct is, if something wonderful happens, to throw water in my own face.

Pessimism is rife in Israel.

As for despair, it comes about when I have been a fool and hate myself and despair of my personality. I am prone to gloom, but not depression as such.

The human mind can bear plenty of reality but not too much intermittent gloom.

I have become down-hearted, I have become discouraged, I have become depressed. I'm just like you. I'm a human being and I have my problems.

I loved music, but I found myself at the point where I wanted to die. I didn't care about life.

I start to think there really is no cure for depression, that happiness is an ongoing battle, and I wonder if it isn't one I'll have to fight for as long as I live. I wonder if it's worth it.

There was a moment in my life when I really wanted to kill myself. And there was one other moment when I was close to that. But even in my most jaded times, I had some hope.

I don't want to be submerged by depression.

I wake up in the morning crying, and I'll tell you why. It's because I look at myself in the mirror, and then I say, 'It'll get better.'