Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word; but in the night of death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing. Robert G Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses
This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much all of the time. Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity. Carl Jung
You never have a comedian who hasn’t got a very deep strain of sadness within him or her. Every great clown has been very near to tragedy. Margaret Rutherford
No society has been able to abolish human sadness, no political system can deliver us from the pain of living, from our fear of death, our thirst for the absolute. It is the human condition that directs the social condition, not vice versa. Eugene Ionesco
There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist. Mark Twain
The sad clown. The Sopranos s4e10: The Strong, Silent Type starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, Tony in therapy, HBO 2002
Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. Ecclesiastes 7:3
The president needs to deal with the sadness but to move forward in a determined fashion to deal with the enemy. 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room, Bush, BBC 2021