Quotes about Tragedy

Léon Bloy wrote: 'Life holds only one tragedy: not to have been a saint

St. Thomas would have agreed with Leon Bloy, who often wrote that in the end there is only one tragedy in life: not to have been a saint.

I think 9/11 affected everybody in one way or another.

It's not the tragedy that can ruin you—it's your own attitude toward it. You can let adversity make or break you, Jason. It's up to you.

In 1959 Corrie was part of a group that visited Ravensbruck, which was then in East Germany, to honor Betsie and the 96,000 other women who died there. There Corrie learned that her own release had been part of a clerical error; one week later all women her age were taken to the gas chamber.

Tragedy is like strong acid - it dissolves away all but the very gold of truth.

In the concentration camps, we discovered this whole universe where everyone had his place. The killer came to kill, and the victims came to die.

The great tragedy of Science: the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact

One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.

The cemetery of the victims of human cruelty in our century is extended to include yet another vast cemetery, that of the unborn.

Faith in God offers no insurance against tragedy. Nor does it offer insurance against feelings of doubt and betrayal. If anything, being a Christian complicates the issue. If you believe in a world of pure chance, what difference does it make whether a bus from Yuba City or one from Salina crashes? But if you believe in a world ruled by a powerful God who loves you tenderly, then it makes an awful difference.

I can view prayer as a way of asking a timeless God to intervene more directly in our time-bound life on earth. (Indeed, I do so all the time, praying for the sick, for the victims of tragedy, for the safety of the persecuted church.)