Sunday, October 18, 2009 – Advice for American Conservatives
Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
What poison is to food, self-pity is to life. ~ Oliver C. Wilson
Grumbling is the death of love. ~ Marlene Dietrich
To hear complaints is wearisome to the wretched and the happy alike. ~ Samuel Johnson
Optimism and self-pity are the positive and negative poles of modern cowardice. ~ Cyril Connolly
He who complains, sins. ~ Saint Francis de Sales
Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand. ~ Baruch Spinoza
When any fit of gloominess, or perversion of mind, lays hold upon you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaints. ~ Samuel Johnson
I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It’s amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges or scrub the floor. ~ D. H. Lawrence
Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a man deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone else in order to taste the rotten luxury of knowing himself to be lost. ~ Thomas Morton
Others may argue about whether the world ends with a bang or a whimper. I just want to make sure mine doesn’t end with a whine. ~ Barbara Gordon
Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution. ~ George Eliot
It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it. ~ Lena Home
Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue. ~ Andre Gide
Honesty is as rare as a man without self-pity. ~ Stephen Vincent Benet
Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable. ~ Maya Angelou
Self-pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality. ~ John W. Gardner
Self-pity comes so naturally to all of us. The most solid happiness can be shaken by the compassion of a fool. ~ Andre Maurois
Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self. ~ Millicent Fenwick
Being Lutheran, Mother believed that self-pity is a deadly sin and so is nostalgia, and she had no time for either. ~ Garrison Keillor
A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them. ~ Oscar Wilde
Most people with low self-esteem have earned it. ~ George Carlin
To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. ~ Confucius
When such men, who are beyond hope and fear, begin in their dim minds to see the source their woes, it may be an evil time for those who have wronged them. The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle (as Sherlock Holmes)
Firmness in enduring and exertion is a character I always wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and cowardly resolve. ~ Robert Burns
The tendency to whining and complaining may be taken as the surest sign symptom of little souls and inferior intellects. ~ Lord Jeffrey
Magnetism is one of the Six Fundamental Forces of the Universe, with the other five being Gravity, Duct Tape, Whining, Remote Control, and The Force That Pulls Dogs Toward The Groins Of Strangers. ~ Dave Barry
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, “Where’s the self-help section?” She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose. ~ George Carlin
Just Above Sunset 