Tragical Quotes

Why is it that man desires to be made sad, beholding doleful and tragical things, which yet himself would by no means suffer? ~ Saint Augustine

Hence, when his name was casually mentioned by neighboring yeomen, the listener said, Ah, Clym Yeobright: what is he doing now?' When the instinctive question about a person is, What is he doing? it is felt that he will not be found to be, like most of us, doing nothing in particular. There is an indefinite sense that he must be invading some region of singularity , good or bad. The devout home is that he is doing well. The secret faith is that he is making a mess of it ... So the subject recurred: if he were making a fortune and a name, so much the better for him, if he were making a tragical figure in the world, so much the better for a narrative ~ Thomas Hardy

He sees such a desperate rapaciousness prevail; such a disregard to equity, such contempt of order, such stupid blindness to future consequences, as must immediately have the most tragical conclusion, and most terminate in destruction to the greater number, and in a total dissolution of society to the rest. ~ David Hume

Oh, this is the most TRAGICAL thing that ever happened to me! ~ L.M. Montgomery

In a little while they were kissing. In a little while longer, they made their slow sweet love.
The iron bed sounded like a pine forest in an ice storm, like a switch track in a Memphis trainyard, like the sweet electrical thunder of habitual love and the tragical history of the constant heart. Auntee finished first, and then Uncle soon after, and their lips were touching lightly as they did.
The rain was still falling and the scritch owl was still asleep and the dragonflies were hidden like jewels somewhere in deep brown wet grasses, nobody knew where.
Uncle rolled away from his wife and held onto her hand, never let it go, old friend, old partner, passionate wife. ~ Lewis Nordan

The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men.
Polonius ~ William Shakespeare

I said, somewhat confused, "What's the problem?"
[Kristy] rolled her eyes. Beside her, Monica said, "Donneven."
"Kristy." Delia shook her head. "This isn't the time or the place, okay?"
"The time or the place for what?" Caroline asked.
"There is never," Kristy said adamantly, "a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment."
"Throbbing?" my mother said, leaning forward and looking at me. "Who's throbbing?"
"Macy and Wes," Kristy told her.
"We are not," I said indignantly.
"Kristy," Delia said helplessly. "Please God I'm begging you, not now."
"Wait a second, wait a second." Caroline held her hands up. "Kristy. Explain."
"Yes, Kristy," my mother said, but she was looking at me. Not really mad as much as confused. Join the club, I thought. "Explain."
Bert said, "This ought to be good."
Kristy ignored him, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "Wes wants to be with Macy. And Macy, whether she'll admit it or not, wants to be with Wes. And yet they're not together, which is not only unjust, but really, when you think about it, tragical."
"That's not a word," Bert pointed out.
"It is now," she said. "How else can you explain a situation where Wes, a truly extraordinary boy, would be sent packing in favor of some brainiac loser…"
"Why," I said, feeling embarrassed, "do we have to keep talking about this?"
"Because it's tragical!" Kristy s ~ Sarah Dessen

Reality only appears to us tragical because of the disequilibrium and confusion of its appearances. ~ Piet Mondrian

In times of exceptional stress, nature will often give people's behavior so tragical a complexion that neither a picture nor a verbal description is competent to represent its titanic energy. ~ Stefan Zweig

I paraphrase Aristotle: If you want to be comical, write about people to whom the audience can feel superior; if you want to be tragical, write about at least one person to whom the audience is bound to feel inferior, and no fair having human problems solved by dumb luck or heavenly intervention. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Somehow even tragedies seem less tragical, when you are the actors in them, than they look to outsiders ~ Hannah Whitall Smith