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tragedy quotes

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“Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.” Aristotle, Poetics
“The life of every individual, if we survey it as a whole and in general, and only lay stress upon its most significant features, is really always a tragedy, but gone through in detail, it has the character of a comedy.” Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation
“Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies.” Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
“For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
“even the most timid women sometimes acquire a relish for the dreadful when that is amalgamated with a little triumph” Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd
“O, why should nature build so foul a den, unless the gods delight in tragedies?” William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus
“It's a shame that we have to live, but it's a tragedy that we get to live only one life.” Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
“Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the second. Words are perhaps the worst. Words are merciless...” Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan
“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.” Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
“We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.” George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“And those who only know the non-platonic love have no need to talk of tragedy. In such love there can be no sort of tragedy.” Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
“But in life, a tragedy is not one long scream. It includes everything that led up to it. Hour after trivial hour, day after day, year after year, and then the sudden moment: the knife stab, the shell-burst, the plummet of the car from the bridge.” Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
“Tragic phrases comfort the heart.... Without them, sorrow would be too heavy for men to bear.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“To lose the only creature in all his world who ever had manifested love and affection for him was the greatest tragedy he had ever known.” Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes
“In the creation of comedy, it is paradoxical that tragedy stimulates the spirit of ridicule; because ridicule, I suppose, is an attitude of defiance: we must laugh in the face of our helplessness against the forces of nature – or go insane.” Charlie Chaplin, My Autobiography
“He who climbeth on the highest mountains, laugheth at all tragic plays and tragic realities.” Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“People are drawn deeper into tragedy not by their defects but by their virtues.” Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Related topics

love comedy life words virtue death passion sadness ridicule women action nature loss sorrow human nature faithfulness moment mercy gods detachment

Related authors

Oscar Wilde (3)
William Shakespeare (2)
Aristotle (1)
Arthur Schopenhauer (1)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1)
Haruki Murakami (1)
George R. R. Martin (1)
Leo Tolstoy (1)
Charlie Chaplin (1)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1)
Thomas Hardy (1)
Margaret Atwood (1)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1)
Jonathan Safran Foer (1)

Related sources

The Picture of Dorian Gray (2)
Poetics (1)
Romeo and Juliet (1)
The World as Will and Representation (1)
Anna Karenina (1)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1)
A Game of Thrones (1)
The Brothers Karamazov (1)
My Autobiography (1)
Titus Andronicus (1)
Kafka on the Shore (1)
The Blind Assassin (1)
Far from the Madding Crowd (1)
Tarzan of the Apes (1)
Lady Windermere's Fan (1)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (1)