Tragic Quotes
More Tragic Quotes
The Enlightenment worldview held by Du Bois is ultimately inadequate, and, in many ways, antiquated, for our time. The tragic plight and absurd predicament of Africans here and abroad requires a more profound interpretation of the human condition — one that goes beyond the false dichotomies of expert knowledge vs. mass ignorance, individual autonomy vs. dogmatic authority, and self-mastery vs. intolerant tradition.
cornel west— The Future of the Race by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cornel West (1997, pg. 64)
What after all, has maintained the human race on this old globe despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not faith in new possibilities, and courage to advocate them. Doubtless many times these new possibilities were declared by a man who, quite unconscious of courage, bore the "sense of being an exile, a condemned criminal, a fugitive from mankind." Did every one so feel who, in order to travel on his own proper path had been obliged to leave the traditional highway?
jane addams— Peace and Bread in Time of War, Chapter 7: Personal Reactions During War (1922)
Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.
stephen hawking— As quoted in "The Science of Second-Guessing", The New York Times (12 December 2004)
I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran (if it attacks Israel). In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them. That's a terrible thing to say but those people who run Iran need to understand that because that perhaps will deter them from doing something that would be reckless, foolish and tragic.
— Hilary Clinton, US presidential nominnee, former first lady and current secretary of state. Reuters
I am here tonight under the most tragic circumstances, with the possibilities of grave and difficult operations in Belfast and in Ulster within almost a few days...I am here to tell you solemnly and honestly that we intend to see this matter through. The cost may be great, the sufferings may be terrible.
— Speech in the Albert Hall, 12 January 1912.
My feet are heavy now but on I go,My head erect beneath the tragic years.
john davidson— I felt the World a-spinning on its Nave, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men. Though you follow the trade of the warrior, you do so in the spirit of Washington — not of Genghis Khan. For Americans, only threat to our way of life justifies resort to conflict.
— Graduation Exercises at the United States Military Academy at West Pont, New York, USA at 3 June 1947
I had such great hope for him. He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss. My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.
heath ledger— Mel Gibson, actor, whose on-screen eldest son, Gabriel Martin, was played by Heath Ledger in The Patriot. In Quotes: Heath Ledger Tributes". BBC News, Entertainment. bbc.co.uk (BBC) (January 23, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-08-23.
It is tragic that we have lost one of our nation's finest actors in the prime of his life. Heath Ledger's diverse and challenging roles will be remembered as some of the great performances by an Australian actor.
heath ledger— Kevin Rudd, prime minister of Australia. In Quotes: Heath Ledger Tributes". BBC News, Entertainment. bbc.co.uk (BBC) (January 23, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-08-23.
He was just so respected in the industry. It's just horribly tragic. He was just a fine actor and a good person, so this is horribly sad and very unexpected.
heath ledger— Kim Serafin, senior editor of In Touch Weekly. Kareen Wynter (January 22, 2008, Entertainment). "Actor Heath Ledger Dead at 28" (Web). CNN (cnn.com (Time Warner)). Retrieved on 2008-08-22.
I never cared about whatever tragic event happened in China. It's faraway decoration, even if in blood and plague.
fernando pessoa— Original: Nunca me pesou o que de trágico se passasse na China. É decoração longínqua, ainda que a sangue e peste.
— Ibid., p. 164
If there was any doubt about the need for social transformation in 1970, that need is clear and urgent today. ... I am now more convinced than ever that the conflict and suffering now threatening to engulf us are entirely unnecessary, and a tragic waste of our energy and resources. We can create an economic system that is not at war with human beings or nature, and we can get from here to there by democratic means.
charles a. reich— Preface to 1995 edition of The Greening of America
"Given that a few days ago we had a terrible accident, a tragic terrorist attack in Barajas, in Madrid, I would like to propose to you that we show our complete condemnation, our most intense revulsion, and that we show profound solidarity with the victims."
josé luis rodríguez zapatero— Note: In reference to the ETA bombing at Madrid airport, El Confidencial (Spanish). That same day, Zapatero said that calling the attack an 'accident' had been a slip of the tongue, but it was seized by the press and provoked anger, for example the slogan "Killing people is not an accident" used in the protests of March, 2007.
The truly tragic kind of suffering is the kind produced and defiantly insisted upon by the hero himself so that, instead of making him better, it makes him worse and when he dies he is not reconciled to the law but defiant, that is, damned. Lear is not a tragic hero, Othello is.
wystan hugh auden— "The Greeks and Us", p. 21
[Nietzsche inveighs] against every sort of historical optimism; but he energetically repudiates the ordinary pessimism, which is the result of degenerate or enfeebled instincts of decadence. He preaches with youthful enthusiasm the triumph of a tragic culture, introduced by an intrepid rising generation, in which the spirit of ancient Greece might be born again. He rejects the pessimism of Schopenhauer, for he already abhors all renunciation; but he seeks a pessimism of healthiness, one derived from strength, from exuberant power, and he believes he has found it in the Greeks.
georg brandes— p. 21 (An Essay on Aristocratic Radicalism (1889))
I've found him to be a disappointment. Wonderful speech in Egypt, and good intentions aside, foreign policy needs to be firmly grounded in reality, and understanding of a sort of chaos theory...[that is to say] it needs to be part good intention, part political intelligence, and part political savvy and knowledge of international interests and national burdens. President Obama has been extremely short-sighted in this sense, and if he fails, it will be a tragic blow for peaceniks and multilateralists the world over, and a manna from heaven for the Republican party.
munir butt— Source: Foreign Affairs. 2009
In our truly remarkable an unexampled civil peace, where there are rarely fist fights; where no one is born, is gravely ill, or dies; where meat is eaten but no one sees an animal slaughtered; where scores of millions of cars, trains, elevators, and airplanes go their scheduled way and there is rarely a crash; where an immense production proceeds in orderly efficiency and the shelves are duly clears and nevertheless none of this come to joy or tragic grief or any other final good it is not surprising if there are explosions.
paul goodman— p. 209 (Growing Up Absurd (1956))
Are animals like car-crashes -- Acts of God or mere Accidents -- bizarre, tragic, farcical, plotted nowadays into a scenario by an ingenious storyteller, Mr C Darwin?
Peter Greenaway— From the introduction to the published script.
In tragic life, God wot, No villain need be! Passions spin the plot: We are betrayed by what is false within.
George Meredith— Modern Love, St. 43 (1862)
Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul When hot for certainties in this our life! - In tragic hints here see what evermore Moves dark as yonder midnight ocean's force, Thundering like ramping hosts of warrior horse, To throw that faint thin fine upon the shore!
George Meredith— St. 50. (Modern Love (1862))
All those who try to unveil the mysteries always have tragic lives. At the end they are always punished.
anaïs nin— "The Mohican"
I have transcended that phase in my intellectual growth where I discover humour in simple freakishness. What exists is real; therefore it is tragic, since wherever lives must die. Only fantasy, the vapours rising from sheer nonsense, can now excite my laughter.
jack vance— Chapter 5, section 3 (p. 430)
Dismount and kneel before me, that I may strike off your head with fullest ease. You shall die in this tragic golden light of sunset.
jack vance— Chapter 11, section 3 (p. 538)
A society, in the process of moving forward, often appears to be tearing itself apart. Certainly, an age of rapid change, such as ours, produces many paradoxes. But perhaps the most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism.
Earl Warren— Writing in Saturday Review (23 October 1971), p. 16
Those persons who were responsible for his tragic death had only the faintest understanding of what he was seeking to accomplish. Even his own disciples so completely misinterpreted his teaching that at the very end they argued among themselves as to who should have the chief places. ...they still visualized twelve thrones of solid gold and quarreled among themselves over the seats of honor on the right and left of the king. How much less able to fathom the meaning of his words and deeds were the ecclesiastical leaders.
— Kirby Page, Jesus or Christianity A Study In Contrasts (1929)
Unfortunately, Climate Science has become Political Science. It is tragic that some perhaps well-meaning but politically motivated scientists who should know better have whipped up a global frenzy about a phenomena which is statistically questionable at best.
— Robert H. Austin, in Update: More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims, U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, March 16, 2009
Between "just desserts" and "tragic irony" we are given quite a large scope for our particular talent. Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go when things have gotten about as bad as they can reasonably get.
— Tom Stoppard, in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990 film, based on his 1966 play); Player
To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,To raise the genius, and to mend the heart;To make mankind, in conscious virtue bold,Live o'er each scene, and be what they behold:For this the tragic Muse first trod the stage.
Alexander Pope— Line 1.
tragic experience indicates that the most sacred obligations are utterly disregarded when their observance means losing the war.
— Kirby Page, "What is War?" (1924) (P)
