And then I felt sad because I realized that once people are broken in certain ways, they can't ever be fixed, and this is something nobody ever tells you when you are young and it never fails to surprise you as you grow older as you see the people in your life break one by one. You wonder when your turn is going to be, or if it's already happened.

—Douglas Coupland in Life After God

failure youth sadness

About Douglas Coupland

Portrait of Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian visual artist and writer. Trained originally as a sculptor, Coupland found unexpected success as a novelist with the publication of his 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, which popularized the terms Generation X and McJob. He has...

More quotations from Douglas Coupland

Nobody has ever been happy in a job they obtained by first handing in a resumé.

—Douglas Coupland

happiness jobs resumé

If human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween.

—Douglas Coupland

courage Halloween costumes

Life is boring. People are vengeful. Good things always end. We do so many things and we don't know why, and if we do find out why, it's decades later and knowing why doesn't matter any more.

—Douglas Coupland in All Families are Psychotic

time change boredom vengeance

Here's my theory about meetings and life; the three things you can't fake are erections, competence and creativity. That's why meetings become toxic they put uncreative people in a situation in which they have to be something they can never be. And the more effort they put into concealing their inabilities, the more toxic the meeting becomes. One of the most common creativity-faking tactics is when someone puts their hands in prayer position and conceals their mouth while they nod at you and say, 'Mmmmmm. Interesting.' If pressed, they'll add, 'I'll have to get back to you on that.' Then they don't say anything else.

—Douglas Coupland

More quotations tagged with “sadness”

Crying is all right in its own way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.

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Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.

—Christopher Morley

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Sometimes, when you're sad you don't know what to do, it helps to be angry. But then the tears come back again all the same, and you fall asleep with the salty taste of them on your lips.

—Cornelia Funke in Inkheart

sadness tears anger

She felt happy these days, yet there was always an undercurrent of sadness just below the surface.

—Diane Chamberlain in The Lost Daughter

happiness sadness

A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.

—Samuel Johnson in The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

sadness adaptation hardship dejection

History

23 Mar 2016 Added