| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 20216cf | Music -- good music, great music -- had a hard, irreducible purity to it. It might be bitter and despairing and pessimistic, but it could never be cynical. If music is tragic, those with asses' ears accuse it of being cynical. But when a composer is bitter, or in despair, or pessimistic, that still means he believes in something. | music despairing pessimistic tragic purity cynical cynicism despair | Julian Barnes | |
| ace7549 | But I live, I , with an absolutely continuous sense of failure. I am always defeated, always. | dejected unrelenting the-black-prince iris-murdoch low-self-esteem despairing failure | Iris Murdoch |