Tragic Flaw Quotes & Sayings

So, I have no sense of direction. In some of us it is a TRAGIC FLAW, and — Elizabeth Wein

There is another human defect which the Law of Natural Selection has yet to remedy: When people of today have full bellies, they are exactly like their ancestors of a million years ago: very slow to acknowledge any awful troubles they may be in. Then is when they forget to keep a sharp lookout for sharks and whales. This was a particularly tragic flaw a million years ago, since the people who were best informed about the state of the planet, like *Andrew MacIntosh, for example, and rich and powerful enough to slow down all the waste and destruction going on, were by definition well fed. So everything was always just fine as far as they were concerned. — Kurt Vonnegut

The sad end he met in Afghanistan was more accurately a function of his stubborn idealism
his insistence on trying to do the right thing. In which case it wasn't a tragic flaw that brought Tillman down, but a tragic virtue. — Jon Krakauer

His tragic flaw is that he is a walking tragedy, and his smile makes me feel alive. — Hannah Moskowitz

But Allison always finished what she started. It was both a saving grace and a tragic flaw. — Debra Ginsberg

Our culture believes strong individuals can transcend their circumstances. I myself don't much enjoy books by Hardy or Dreiser or Wharton, where the outside world is so strong, so overwhelming, that the individual hasn't a chance. I get impatient, I keep feeling that somehow the deck is stacked unfairly. That is the point, of course, but my feeling is that if that's true, I don't want to play. I prefer to move to another table where I can retain my illusion, if illusion it be, that I'm working only against only probabilities, and have a chance to win. Then if you lose, you can blame it on your own poor playing. That is called a tragic flaw, and like guilt, it's very comforting. You can go on believing that there really is a right way, and you just didn't find it. — Marilyn French

If there is a single tragic flaw that mars our biggest enterprises, it is conservatism - the failure to fail, and fail big, in an era of unprecedented volatility and ambiguity. — Tom Peters

One of the most glorious, yet tragic, things about being human was that, sometimes, you just had to learn things for yourself. Call it a flaw, call it a blessing, call it life. If everyone learned from everyone else's mistakes, the world would be perfect. — Bart Hopkins

The great wheel of fire of ancient wisdom, silence and word engendering the myth of the origin, human action engendering the epic voyage toward the other; historical violence revealing the tragic flaw of the hero who must then return to the land of origin; myth of death and renewal and silence from which new words and images will arise, keeps on turning in spite of the blindness of purely lineal thought. — Carlos Fuentes

The Duchess set about studying Annette and shortly found her adversary's tragic flaw.
Chocolate. — William Goldman

Don't underestimate the power of events that happened a long time ago. That is the tragic flaw of modern man. — Anne Fortier

Hamartia (n.) The flaw that precipitates the destruction of a tragic hero. Hamartia is a noble word, with a fine history (the OED says also that it refers particularly to Aristotle's Poetics). If you have any decency or soul, please do not use this word to refer to your own weakness for something such as chocolate. also — Ammon Shea

Although he liked nearly everything else about himself, Keith hated his redeeming features. In his view they constituted his only major shortcoming -his one tragic flaw. — Martin Amis

Noble in defeat, he (Nixon) was now without grace in victory. I had seen the president show rare courage when others are around him shrank in fear. Since I had come to respect the president for what he was at his best moments, I learned to accept him for what he was at his worst. Loyalty, like love, creates its own image of what we see. — Charles W. Colson

'Oh, gods,' said Holden, halfway into his tunic. 'I can't believe it's taken me five years to realize your one tragic flaw. You're a morning person. Stop being so chipper right now. At least until I've had my coffee.' — Maculategiraffe

In fact, most deaths are not tragic. Few people die because of a flaw in character, which is the essential element of tragedy. They just die. — John Chancellor