#miser

So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which, in the midst of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth, and complicates with human fatality a destiny that is divine; so long as the three problems of the century - the degradation of man by the exploitation of his labour, the ruin of women by starvation and the atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words and from a still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, there should be a need for books such as this. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#les-miserables #preface #law

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. ↗

— Winston Churchill

#envy #equal #failure #gospel #ignorance

Oftentimes. when people are miserable, they will want to make other people miserable, too. But it never helps. ↗

— Lemony Snicket

#help

There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#misery #poverty #poverty

The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same. ↗

— Carlos Castaneda

#either #emphasizes #happy #make #miserable

And now I'm right back where I started. Sober and miserable. ↗

— Alyson Noel

#sobriety #misery

Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it. ↗

— Boethius

#misery #misery

He wanted to make her laugh. He wanted to sit and listen to her talk about books until his ears fell off. But all these were things he could not want, because they were things he could not have, and wanting what you could not have led to misery and madness. ↗

— Cassandra Clare

#misery

What if we just acknowledged that we have a bad relationship, and we stuck it out, anyway? What if we admitted that we make each other nuts, we fight constantly and hardly ever have sex, but we can't live without each other, so we deal with it? And then we could spend our lives together -- in misery, but happy to not be apart. ↗

— Elizabeth Gilbert

#misery

But all these were things he could not want, because they were things he could not have, and wanting what you could not have led to misery and madness. ↗

— Cassandra Clare

#wanting #misery