Quotes & Sayings About Downfall

I'm a patient person. I think that's one thing that I feel comfortable I can deal with - the downfall and the errors, as long as I see progress and people trying. — Phil Jackson

Watching, she had felt unusually and keenly alive, alive the way a knife is sharp, so that the humiliation she was enduring was perfect, like the paring of skin from a hard apple. — Sonya Hartnett

Most modern biologists, having reviewed with satisfaction the downfall of the spontaneous generation hypothesis, yet unwilling to accept the alternative belief in special creation, are left with nothing. — George Wald

That like I best that flies beyond my reach.
Set me to scale the high pyramids
And thereon set the diadem of France;
I'll either rend it with my nails to nought,
Or mount the top with my aspiring wings,
Although my downfall be the deepest hell. — Christopher Marlowe

If a ruler who wants to act honourably is surrounded by unscrupulous men, his downfall is inevitable. — C.J. Sansom

When your outflow exceeds your income, your upkeep becomes your downfall — Jim Rohn

The part of [Oscar] Wilde was exceptionally important to me; the man, his achievements, his wisdom, but his downfall, his disgrace and the tragic and bitter end to it have always fascinated, appalled and attracted me since childhood. It was he who first in some measure vindicated my sexuality. — Stephen Fry

The downfall of the church will not come from a lack of apologetic teaching; it will come from disintegration of the families in the church. — Josh McDowell

Few things reveal more about political leaders and their systems than the manner of their downfall, — Antony Beevor

A man's pride can be his downfall, and he needs to learn when to turn to others for support and guidance. — Bear Grylls

Life is strange and funny with many winding roads ahead ... but the roads of greed and hypocrisy will lead to a person's downfall each and every time. — Timothy Pina

In the early stages the sexual needs will have the upper hand, in later stages the compulsive moralistic inhibition. At times of political upheavals of the total social organization, the conflict between sexuality and compulsive morality becomes most acute. This will impress some people as the "collapse of morality," other people as "sexual revolution." At any rate, the idea of the "decline of culture" is the perception of the breakthrough of natural sexuality. The only reason why it is experienced subjectively as "decline" is the fact that it threatens the compulsive moralistic way of living. What happens objectively is only the downfall of the sexual dictatorship which maintains the compulsive moralistic forces in the individuals in the interest of authoritarian marriage and family. — Wilhelm Reich

I wish we would all just fall apart so I wouldn't have to listen to the downfall happen, so slowly, so painfully. — Hannah Moskowitz

Love is our downfall. — Anonymous

No 'Middlemarch' for me," said Miss Barbara, with a wave of her hand. "I am too old for that. That means I've read it, my dear - the way an experienced reader like me can read a thing - in the air, in the newspapers, in the way everybody talks. No, that's not like going into a new neighborhood - that is getting to the secrets of the machinery, and seeing how everything, come the time, will run down, some to ill and harm, but all to downfall, commonplace, and prosiness. I have but little pleasure in that. And it's pleasure I want at my time of life. I'm too old to be instructed. If I have not learned my lesson by this time, the more shame to me, my dear." "But, Miss Barbara, you don't want only to be amused. Oh no: to have your heart touched, sometimes wrung even - to be so sorry, so anxious that you would like to interfere - to follow on and on to the last moment through all their troubles, still hoping that things will take a good turn." — Mrs. Oliphant

I like food too much to go on some crazy diet. French fries are my favorite downfall. — Holly Madison

So, it's a delicate thing, but at the same time our producers and writers are very much aware of the potential downfall that could ensue so I think they're going to be very careful about how they do that. At the same time I don't think they want to leave the characters in the same holding pattern that they've been in for a while. I think that they're all trying to put the characters in a different situation. — Emily Deschanel

Acheron the River of Death:
Healed souls in the wake of the vessel;
My Obolus,
He will not redound to the glory of those.
Those who drown in the Acheron;
out loud hands -
that is our downfall,
They scream out of desperate chasms. — Kristian Goldmund Aumann

Great treasures bring out great greed in the hearts of men and great greed has been the downfall of many nations. - from Opoponax Dreams — Genieve Dawkins

The widening gap between technology and human needs can only be filled by ethics. We have seen in the last thirty years many examples of the power of ethics. The worldwide environmental movement, basing its power on ethical persuasion, has scored many victories over industrial wealth and technological arrogance. The most spectacular victory of the environmentalists was the downfall of the nuclear industry in the United States and many other countries, first in the domain of nuclear power and more recently in the domain of weapons. It was the environmental movement that closed down factories for making nuclear weapons in the United States, from plutonium-producing Hanford to warhead-producing Rocky Flats. Ethics can be a force more powerful than politics and economics. — Freeman Dyson

Most people wear clothing that is too big or too small for them. And "oversized" is the downfall for most of us. We have to be careful that we don't look like we're slipcovered! — Tim Gunn

Sebastian, who had begun to laugh, seemed struck by that last comment. "Ahhh," he said softly. "That explains it." He was silent for a moment, lost in some distant, pleasurable memory. "Dangerous creatures, wallflowers. Approach them with the utmost caution. They sit quietly in corners, appearing abandoned and forlorn, when in truth they're sirens who lure men to their downfall. You won't even notice the moment she steals the heart right out of your body - and then it's hers for good. A wallflower never gives your heart back." "Are you finished amusing yourself?" Gabriel asked, impatient with his father's flight of fancy. — Lisa Kleypas

The downfall of the industry seems to actually be good for art. I think the industry will find their way once the focus shifts from its greed-based origins, downsizes, and begins to support creative visions that speak to our times and shifting ideals. — Saul Williams

Complacency will be the architecture of your downfall. — Jeremy Gutsche

You can pretend that bad things will never happen. But life's a lot easier if you realize and admit that sometimes they do. — Lois Lowry

This sutra enjoins a rule of morality. It says nobody should be disrespected. A man can impress evdrybnody by his virtues. Disrespecting others means downfall of our own virtues. A person who disrespects others, in a way disrespect himself. A virtuous man does not disrespect his friend or vevn his enemy. Disrespect to enemy can investigate him toreact. The best thing is to destroy him completely. For a ruler this is very important. — Chanakya

He who prides himself upon wealth and honor hastens his own downfall. — Laozi

As long as she doesn't turn too smart for men
For the stupid ones, she will, Madame. But who wants them anyway? A stupid man is every woman's' downfall. — Nina George

Power, safely defied, touches its downfall. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Symbolic thinking of any kind would signal downfall, in Crake's view. Next they'd be inventing idols, and funerals, and grave goods, and the afterlife, and sin, and Linear B, and kings, and then slavery and war. — Margaret Atwood

The enemy plotted against you and awaited your downfall. Look at you surviving. And your enemies can not figure out how. What you have inside is greater than any negative force. — Amaka Imani Nkosazana

Racial history is therefore natural history and the mysticism of the soul at one and the same time; but the history of the religion of the blood, conversely, is the great world story of the rise and downfall of peoples, their heroes and thinkers, their inventors and artists. — Alfred Rosenberg

You're in love, my old friend, and that is the downfall of all good men. — Christine Feehan

Perhaps as he was lying awake then, his life may have passed before him
his early hopeful struggles, his manly successes and prosperity, his downfall in his declining years, and his present helpless condition
no chance of revenge against Fortune, which had had the better of him
neither name nor money to bequeath
a spent-out, bootless life of defeat and disappointment, and the end here! Which, I wonder, brother reader, is the better lot, to die prosperous and famous, or poor and disappointed? To have, and to be forced to yield; or to sink out of life, having played and lost the game? That must be a strange feeling, when a day of our life comes and we say, To-morrow, success or failure won't matter much, and the sun will rise, and all the myriads of mankind go to their work or their pleasure as usual, but I shall be out of the turmoil. — William Makepeace Thackeray

It seems when Opportunity knocks, Fate shows up to open the door. — Anthony Liccione

The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is sometimes base, and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall, or at least an eclipse. — Francis Bacon

I feel that flip-flops are the downfall of many relationships. It's, like, first it's the flip-flops, and then it's the sweatpants ... it's the gateway drug to no sex. — Lady Gaga

Haile Selassie was not an evil man, but his priorities were misplaced. He was so concerned with establishing a strong central government and modernizing the country that he failed to meet the challenge of natural disaster ... It was his false pride, this lack of courage to admit mistakes, that brought about his downfall. — Haile Selassie

The paths of greed and vanity will always lead to one's downfall. — Timothy Pina

She was going to be my downfall. She was going to be my corruption and my vice. She was going to be my addiction and my compulsion and I was still going to fall headlong into her knowing the landing was going to be rough for both of us. — Jay Crownover

I survived the whole day guarding Lissa, and you guys said I did a good job. Then, I get back here and meet my downfall in the form of a bench. — Richelle Mead

The final destinations of ignorant people are always the same streets: Street of downfall, street of defeat, street of frustration, street of disgrace! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Our epoch is a time of tragic collision between matter and spirit and of the downfall of the purely material world view. — Wassily Kandinsky

From triumph to downfall is but a step. I have seen a trifle decide the most important issues in the gravest affairs. — Napoleon Bonaparte

Time and time again, the obstinate refusal of the tsarist regime to concede reforms turned what should have been a political problem into a revolutionary crisis ... the tsarist regime's downfall was not inevitable; but its own stupidity made it so. — Orlando Figes

The truth wears longer than all the gods; for it is only in the truth's service, and for love of it, that people have overthrown the gods and at last God himself. "The truth" outlasts the downfall of the world of gods, for it is the immortal soul of this transitory world of gods; it is Deity itself. — Max Stirner

I'm just a young guy with big dreams who is working hard to make it on top while many people are waiting for my downfall, they don't support but hate and talk negativity. — Werley Nortreus

The beauty of a financial institution is that there are a lot of ways to go to hell in a bucket. You can push credit too far, do a dumb acquisition, leverage yourself excessively - it's not just derivatives [that can bring about your downfall]. — Charlie Munger

Greetings, O Great Gazoo. How nice of you to join us here on planet Earth again. (Cael)
Thanks, Barney. How's Betty and Bam Bam doing? (Acheron)
Great, if I could only get them away from Wilma and Pebbles. Those women are nothing but trouble. (Cael)
Nah, they're good women. It's the ones in red who are always the downfall of good men. (Acheron) — Sherrilyn Kenyon

Men are strong, women are smart, but no matter how smart, their bellies are always there to betray women and that's their downfall. — Simone Schwarz-Bart

A woman on the verge of moral downfall ought to be well dressed. Claire's particular transgression was gartered to her thigh, a paper hidden by yards of silk. She walked through the empty alley, confident in one comforting truth: no one dared ask a lady what her skirts concealed... — Gina Conkle

Conceit may bring about one's own downfall. — Aesop

There are two forms of magic. There is a magic that is the work of the Devil and which aims at man's downfall through artifices of which it is not licit to speak. But there is a magic that is divine, where God's knowledge is made manifest through the knowledge of man, and it serves to transform nature, and one of its ends is to prolong man's very life. — Umberto Eco

Supposedly, I was trying to re-create the one time in my fucked-up life when I had felt truly happy - before it all went to shit.

Funny because, even though my life had sucked before Evie, ultimately, she was the sole reason it went down the path straight to hell.

I should've known from the moment I met her that, eventually, she'd be my downfall. I mean, I am Adam, and she's my fucking Eve. It had been written in the cards. — Samantha Towle

Obviously, the core of Eve's temptation was she wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil. But we can't ignore the fact that the serpent used food as a tool in the process. If the very downfall of humanity was caused when Eve surrendered to a temptation to eat something she wasn't supposed to eat, I do think our struggles with food are important to God. — Lysa TerKeurst

Those of us who always abhorred slavery as an atheistical iniquity, gladly we join in the exulting chorus of humanity over its downfall. — Herman Melville

All of women's stories in the 19th century had either one of two endings: you either had the good Jane Austen marriage at the end and you were happy; or you had the terrible Henry James savage downfall because of your own hubris as a woman, or you've made some great error leading you down a path to ruin. One is the story of love that's successful and the other is the story usually of reckless love that goes terribly wrong that destroys the woman. — Elizabeth Gilbert

16 When the wicked are in authority, sin flourishes, but the godly will live to see their downfall. — Anonymous

Wherever there is a religious regime, over there there is ignorance, misery and absurdity! No religious state can ever elevate its own people! Sooner or later, the primitiveness of the religious administrations and the irrationality of the religious rules will cause a great collapse of those countries! The downfall is inevitable! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Remember all those who suffer from their own downfall, after having believed themselves to be winners, and who now weep for the many lost hours. So while you still have time, seek to enrich your own spirits for the tomorrow which awaits you because, in accordance with the teachings of the Lord, it is of no use to retain the outward appearance of the splendor of all the empires of this world, if you maintain darkness within your heart. — Chico Xavier

To have striven so hard, to have molded a public personality out of so amorphous an identity, to have sustained that superhuman effort only to end with every weakness disclosed and every error compounding the downfall
that was a fate of biblical proportions. Evidently the Deity would not tolerate the presumption that all can be manipulated; an object lesson of the limits of human presumption was necessary. — Henry A. Kissinger

I leave you two things, which, if you hold fast to them shall preserve you from all error: the Book of Allah, and my Sunna. Your downfall begins with your departure from these two. — Hajjah Amina Adil

Many Nigerians believe that Babangida 'institutionalized corruption', yet few admit their own complicity in creating the situation where corruption became the norm. The citizenry are simultaneously victims, accomplices and active participants in their own corrupt downfall. Corruption in Nigeria is not just an offshoot of collapsed social and governmental institutions, nor is it the result of a hostile economic environment. The roots go much deeper and are more symptomatic of a residual breakdown of Nigerian societal values and morality. It is the result of a nationwide refusal to condemn dishonesty... While the government must take blame for not cracking down on corruption, the public deserves its share of blame for encouraging it, and letting the government get away with it. — Max Siollun

With the mega-fame came the mega-downfall - you know, with the press and everything - and at a young age, it was very stressful to me. — Vanilla Ice

Yet the way men live is so far removed from the way they ought to live that anyone who abandons what 'is' for what 'should be' pursues his downfall rather than his preservation; — David Mitchell

If Miss Beresford had not been in such a hurry to marry a poor country clergyman, there was no knowing what she might not have become. But Dixon was too loyal to desert her in her affliction and downfall (alias her married life). — Elizabeth Gaskell

We have self-centered minds which get us into plenty of trouble. If we do not come to understand the error in the way we think, our self-awareness, which is our greatest blessing, is also our downfall. — Joko Beck

When you choose your profession, you also choose your own downfall or success. If one chooses to become an artist it is 99% certain that it will go to hell. So you should not become that. If you study economics on Oslo, 99% of all students will do very well and 1% will reach the top. — Odd Nerdrum

Now it seems like there is no culture. The school of fish are all separate. Everybody's just randomized, listening to their own thing in their earbuds. That's going to be the downfall of music, if anything. Nobody enjoys one thing anymore. — DJ Quik

All I said was that I thought it was a judgement from God that Blyth had first lost his leg and then had the replacement become the instrument of his downfall. All because of the rabbits. Eric, who was going through a religious phase at the time which I suppose I was to some extent copying, thought this was a terrible thing to say; God wasn't like that. I said the one I believed in was. — Iain Banks

It doesn't really matter to me what the rest of country is doing. I'm not caught up in trying to make a record that sounds like everybody else. That, to me, is a record label's absolute biggest downfall. — Joe Nichols

Not democracy caused the downfall of Athens, as the European glorifiers of princes and lickspittle schoolmasters would have us believe, but slavery ostracizing the labor of the free citizen. The — Friedrich Engels

As far as we can look back into history, the downfall of any nation can be traced from the moment that nation became timid about spending its best blood. — Frederick Russell Burnham

She was too dependent on what other people thought of her, and that was her downfall. She cared too much. She was only what other people saw in her - -that is, what she imagined they saw in her. — Steph Bowe

Cleland was the victim of his own downfall. — Alan Parry

I spend my days watching soap operas, eating bonbons and plotting society's downfall. — Tana French

And what movies we saw! All the actors and actresses whose photographs I collected, with their look of eternity! Their radiance, their eyes, their faces, their voices, the suavity of their movements! Their clothes! Even in prison movies, the stars shone in their prison clothes as if tailors had accompanied them in their downfall. — Paula Fox

When your outgo exceeds your income, the upshot may be your downfall. — Paul Harvey

The last decade has seen a powerful counterassault on women's rights, a backlash, an attempt to retract the handful of small and hard-won victories that the feminist movement did manage to win for women. This counterassault is largely insidious: in a kind of pop-culture version of the Big Lie, it stands the truth boldly on its head and proclaims that the very steps that have elevated women's position have actually led to their downfall. — Susan Faludi

It is when we think we can act like God, that all respect is lost, and I think this is the downfall of peace. We lie if we say we do not see color and culture and difference. We fool ourselves and cheat ourselves when we say that all of us are the same. We should not want to be the same as others and we should not want others to be the same as us. Rather, we ought to glory and shine in all of our differences, flaunting them fabulously for all to see! It is never a conformity that we need! We need not to conform! What we need is to burst out into all these beautiful colors! — C. JoyBell C.

Fear, more than anything else, is the root of our destruction."

"Destruction?" Aribella asked with a hint of disbelief she didn't bother to hide. "How does one blazing summer herald the downfall of the kingdom?"

"Fear always leads to destruction. Whether it is today or in another ten years, it will come eventually. — Annie Jackson

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with a bank being big. In fact, there are some good arguments about universality of geography that in theory, if you have all your eggs in one little community, and some big employer goes out, that could be your downfall. — Wilbur Ross

Nuclear warfare is not necessary to cause a breakdown of our society. You take a large city like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago-their water supply comes from hundreds of miles away and any interruption of that, or food, or power for any period of time, you're going to have riots in the streets. Our society is so fragile, so dependent on the interworking of things to provide us with goods and services, that you don't need nuclear warfare to fragment us anymore than the Romans needed it to cause their eventual downfall. — Gene Roddenberry

His lips thinned in frustration like I should already know the answer. He inched closer until his knee touched mine, his eyes, curious and intense, boring into me. "Because you move like fire rushing across a floor," he said his voice hushed, velvety smooth, "like flames licking up a wall." The rest of the world crumbled away as he lifted my chin. "Your energy is liquid and hot. Even from a distance you burn, you scorch anyone who gets too close. You are wine on my tongue and honey in my veins, and I cannot get enough of you." He leaned forward and whispered into my ear. His warm breath sent shivers cascading over my body. "You intoxicate me, Lorelei McAlister. You will be my downfall. — Darynda Jones

In 1954 the gulag at Kengir witnessed an uprising by Christian and Muslim prisoners. The guards were driven out, and for forty days worship was freely practiced in the camp. Solzhenitsyn later documented the atmosphere of elation and idealism which prevailed in this doomed island of faith: the Muslims put on turbans and robes again, and 'the grey-black camp was a blaze of color'. The Chechens made kites from which they showered the neighboring villages with messages about the evils of the atheist system. Many marriages were celebrated. Survivors recall the forty days as a testimony to a possible way of living which had been suffocated by dreary unbelief. Delight in the present, and the knowledge of heaven outweighed the awareness of Khrushchev's inevitable revenge. The rebels were crushed under the attacks of tanks, but in the long term, this same spiritual outweighing insured the atheist dystopia's downfall. — Abdal Hakim Murad

Your very success is what's going to destroy you. The survival mechanism that you've developed is the very thing which will cause the downfall of your subtle physical body. — Frederick Lenz

Someone's writing down your mistakes, someone's documenting your downfall. — Nicole Blackman

And besides, it drives the dragon crazy when you sing about his downfall even though you are bleeding — Allan Boesak

My downfall, inevitably, was triggered by food. — Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Pride of opinion has been responsible for the downfall of more men on Wall Street than any other factor. — Charles Dow

My big downfall is deep-dish pizza from Chicago. That is why I can't go vegan - I can't give up cheese. I can't give up dairy. — Parvesh Cheena

The moral high ground to which I aspired had turned into a slippery slope. — Alfred Alcorn

National injustice is the surest road to national downfall. — William E. Gladstone

Watch out for art, Crake used to say. As soon as they start doing art, we're in trouble. Symbolic thinking of any kind would signal downfall, in Crake's view. Next they'd be inventing idols, and funerals, and grave goods, and the afterlife, and sin, and Linear B, and kings, and then slavery and war. Snowman longs to question them - who first had the idea of making a reasonable facsimile of him, of Snowman, out of a jar lid and a mop? But that will have to wait. — Margaret Atwood

If you are not a king, do not accept the throne, which is the sit of your downfall. — Aihebholo-oria Okonoboh

It's a bonus if your girlfriend likes your music - definitely not a downfall. — Ashton Irwin

I am by now completely convinced that my downfall in life is going to be my inability to achieve computer nirvana like a true hacker or hackette. I think this lacking is the most unmodern facet of my personality - the career equivalent of having six fingers, or a vestigial tail. — Douglas Coupland

The schemers in this world eventually plot nothing but their own downfall. — Kaneda Chaplin

Niggas pray and pray on my downfall, But every time I hit the ground I bounce up like round ball — Jay-Z

Casual?" Elam halted and crossed his arms. "My good horse, there's a big difference between casual and confident. I am aware of the danger, but ... I want to maintain a confident mind-set in full assurance of faith, otherwise my heart might melt within me." ... "Take care that your confidence does not swell into arrogance, for that is the downfall of every man of pride. — Bryan Davis