| 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. | cynical cynicism despair despairing music pessimistic purity tragic | Julian Barnes | |
| ace7549 | But I live, I , with an absolutely continuous sense of failure. I am always defeated, always. | dejected despairing failure iris-murdoch low-self-esteem the-black-prince unrelenting | Iris Murdoch |